Sean Thompson’s Weird Ears :: “Head In The Sand”
Photo: Monica Murray
The Nashville, Tennessee-based sonic Sargent of stringed sophistication, Sean Thompson, has returned after the success of 2022’s self-titled album with the highly anticipated follow-up “Head In The Sand.” It’s everything one could expect from such a talented savant and nothing less than a melodic miracle. Riddled in rich respect to iconic influences such as the Dead, J.J. Cale, Jimmy Buffett, the ultimate Calgary of country music, and the all-around zeitgeist of Southern hospitality, Thompson’s atmospherically animated world of melody is as compelling as it is transfixed on the complex characters he conjures throughout the entirety of the album. While balancing the sonic souls of some of country music’s most pungent proprietors of the popular past, the musician’s excellent ability to shift the sensational sands of time by combining a scholarly structure with whispering vocals is quite extraordinary. Without lingering too long in the saturated shadows of his contemporaries, Thompson sets his sights on a brand new landscape where family, friends, and the mysteries of memory fill the empty rooms of the mind, leaving nothing undeveloped for future extraction and artistic analysis. Joined by an atmospherically academic ensemble of musicians and sonic soothsayers such as Spencer Cullum Jr., Rich Ruth, Erin Rae, Jo Schornikow, and several others, all of whom helped to make this album a limitless listen from start to finish.
“Head In the Sand is an exercise in relinquishing control and letting things come as organically as possible. It’s about quieting the noise and enjoying it.”
Photo: Jackie Lee Young
As someone born and raised here in Tennessee, specifically outside of Nashville, I feel a personal draw to the tonal tales spun by Thompson and his admirable appreciation of the unparalleled greats from back in the day that effortlessly seeps from the musician’s fundamental fingertips. With tracks like “Roll On Buddy,” which was recorded in Marfa, TX, and is dedicated to his late pup Levon, “Sweet Taste of Tennessee,” “Storm’s Comin’ Tonight,” which is based on the infamous tornado that tore through Middle Tennessee in 2020 pre-pandemic and was subsequently recorded in one take, “Not In The Cards,” and the album’s opening title track, “Head In The Sand,” is a lavish listen that ultimately strikes a chord with listeners no matter their geographical location or connection to “cosmic country” as a whole. Its textured temperament transcends any previous typicalness in other standards of the shifting genre by showcasing Thompson’s sensational obsession with his instrument and its impeccable charm. While charging through the thrifty and exhausted narrative of Music City and what that means to most people connected to its harmonious hindrance, Thompson instead celebrates that long-lost community by igniting a flame of illusion and intensity directly in its sleepy core for all to hear with fresh, weird ears like never before. Released in collaboration with Missing Piece Group and Ears Over America Records, “Head In The Sand” is a consistent constitution of community connection that doesn’t change or fold when the times are tough. It simply shapeshifts, and like river water to an ancient rock, it’ll go around until it eventually breaks through.
