Just because Chris Porterfield recorded his debut solo record at ex-DeYarmond Edison bandmate Justin Vernon's April Base studio in Eau Claire does not mean it will break your heart like Vernon's mythic cabin in the woods. Thematically, it's dense like Edison, cryptic even, but its instrumentals don't make it their business to enchant. If you're not already equipped and expecting to fall in love, you could easily pass by that emotional whirlpool like a ship in the night. But if a breathy, acoustic aquarium is up your alley, then take the dive and swim alongside Porterfield's magical lyricism. Throughout the record, he vividly dramatizes his own past by ensconcing it within the folds of a bygone folk romanticism (think Dylan and Kerouac, with a battered Midwestern sincerity) and, in doing so, renders it worthy of remembering. Fictitious or not, though, it is a beautiful creature to behold.
