Photo by Justin Gordon

Something is amiss in Merce Lemon’s world on “Backyard Lover”, and whether it’s because of her lover, the grief stricken by the loss of her friend, her own undoing, or all of the above isn’t really the most important detail about that in the lead single from the Pittsburg indie rock songwriter’s new album, Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild. Lemon’s way with words captures impressionism and specificity in the same fell swoop in the same way she catches herself being swallowed by the room and swimming the butterfly in a river as if either scenery exists just as vividly. She’s just drifting through one death to another in the same slow-moving, cozy comforts of alt-country guitar’s thistle and twang. It isn’t until a fire starts and conflagrates the listen in her f-bomb accusations where she becomes fully lucid. “A sliding hill / A quick refrain / A frozen bird / Melting/ An eyelash / For wishing.” Make that one last ditch effort to put her past to bed, burying the worst of it while keeping the rest burning.

Shot and Edited by: Greg Pierce, Nick Faidley & Merce Lemon

Merce Lemon’s Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild will be released September 27th on Darling Recordings.