Daytrotter Session: The Black Swans

New session at Daytrotter: The Black Swans, led by Ohioan Jerry DeCicca, bring the dark, dark shadows out into the light and you can't help but look... and listen, as they burn and drift away.

I thought the name, The Black Swans, seemed vaguely familiar and then I saw Jerry's name, I wrote about these guys several years ago on *sixeyes. Just found it and here's what I wrote in 2005:

Jerry DeCicca, of The Black Swans, has a darkness in his voice, a ghostly quality. Not sinister, more like a blue fog, sad grey veils which are delivered in contrast to the sweet, and yes... also sad, violin of bandmate, Noel Sayre (a member of the Huntington Symphony Orchestra in West Virginia). The languid sounds of the band may stir memories of British band, Tindersticks, but they move in a decidedly more sinister and romantic arena then The Black Swans. DeCicca may also bring to mind Nick Cave, that is if Cave moved forward out of the bowels of his 'cave' towards the cloud streaked mid-western sky.

Their song, "Blue Skies", on their debut, Who Will Walk In The Darkness With You? (Delmore Records/Nov. 23 2004) is a lovely melody, pulled along by DeCicca's 'ghost-with-the-blues' voice and lifted above most bluesy rural-folk by Sayre's tasteful performance on violin. Throughout, "Blue Skies", a tinkling bell reminds the songs narrator, and us, that happiness still exists, that it's always there and will come back to those who survive through the blues.