#jay bolotin

[durruti23]

Jay Bolotin - The Book of Only Enoch (2011-14)

https://www.bates.edu/museum/exhibitions/2016-3/jay-bolotin-the-book-of-only-enoch/

[adsmusiconstellations]

"That song, Jay Bolotin´s ‘Traveler’ — a lot of people have been trying to write that for a long time..." -

Kris Kristofferson

[adsmusiconstellations]

Jay Bolotin

https://delmorerecordings.com

[adsmusiconstellations]

Jay Bolotin - No One Seems To Notice That It's Raining (Previously Unreleased Recordings 1970​-​75)

https://delmorerecordings.com 

[culturesonar]

Troubadour Jay Bolotin's 50-Year Journey From The Shadows

Jay Bolotin’s songs caught the attention of Merle Haggard, Kris Kristofferson, and Dan Fogelberg (which somehow worked against him).

[dustedmagazine]

Jay Bolotin — No One Seems to Notice That It's Raining (Delmore)

Songwriter Jay Bolotin has produced a woodcut-based animated opera motion picture. That work seems a long way from a guy who never made it in Nashville 45 years ago. The story, at quick glance, could describe any number of musicians. Make an album that doesn't get proper release, get support from bigger names (in this case David Allan Coe, Kris Kristofferson, Dan Fogelberg), write a few hits, disappear when it doesn't work out. For Bolotin, though, the story's weirder than normal in its expression of a broader artistic sensibility, and the release of newly discovered recordings on No One Seems to Notice That It's Raining highlights that idea.  

Bolotin, since the end of his time in music, has become a visual artist, primarily doing not only woodcuts but also sculpture. This sense of seeing art first (with music as just one possible outlet) comes through in the letters from the first half 1970s that reveal his mindset. In January 1975, when he gets fired from a publishing company, he first writes about cutting firewood and “lying down in the forest for perhaps two hours at a time,” even imagining to be a dead soldier as he listens to gunshots from hunters. The other firing (that from his job) seems like secondary and even positive news. The letters are obviously curated for a particularly narrative, but they do a good job entwining Bolotin's casual thoughts on art with his unstable music career.

Of course, none of that artist-wandering-in-the-forest stuff would matter much if the songs and their performances weren't good. And without fail, they are. “Traveler” should have been a hit; it's bizarre that this cut hasn't at least found its way into various soundtracks. Bolotin's fingerstyle guitar drives the song, but his sense of dynamics makes it memorable. “It's Hard to Go Down Easy” actually was a hit, of sorts, but for Fogelberg and not Bolotin. Though Bolotin plays and sings well, the baker's dozen tracks here make the case that he should have at least made it as a songwriter.

 Tracing out the causes why a career never took off is usually fruitless. There's a sort of randomness to it all, the missed connections, the cautious executives, and the ongoing sense that talent isn't necessarily rewarded. In short, life is sometimes stupid. Even so, there are elements of Bolotin's music that both create its appeal and challenge its commercial viability. First, there's that whole artistic thing. Bolotin is sharp, and well-crafted, but something like “The Story of Lester and the Gold Coin,” a strange and lengthy spoken-word narrative, doesn't play well on radio. The work he does doesn't quite fit with mainstream Nashville (or even the outlaw country). 

Musically, he's not a clear match anywhere either. He's one-part country singer, one-part folkie, and one-part AM radio. There's no country-politan move here, and no prison time. Nick Drake might be a fitting comparison, but Bolotin is less frail (though not muscular in sound). He would fit alongside Harry Chapin, but he's more hushed. It's no wonder that Coe and Kristofferson liked him, and maybe the latter makes sense as style partner for him, but Bolotin's marking his own ground here. These demos are utterly of the 1970s acoustic style, in a broad sense but not in a definitive one. All of those aesthetic details probably made the songs a tough option at the time, but it also makes them utterly listenable and relevant half a century later.  

Justin Cober-Lake

[cincygroove]

Jay Bolotin Coming To Northside Tavern On 11/13 In Support Of New Album http://www.cincygroove.com/?p=82300

[les-proliferations-malignes]

Visit Original Link