SPENCER HOFFMAN, CHERRY PICKER

I’ve always been drawn to the more pastoral side of folk and folk rock music. The kind of songwriting that moves with patience, where fingerpicked guitar, soft percussion, open harmony, and intimate vocals carry as much feeling as the words themselves. Tim Buckley, John Martyn, Nick Drake, and Fairport Convention each worked in that space in their own way, writing songs with organic textures and a light melancholy. On his sophomore album, Cherry Picker, singer songwriter Spencer Hoffman finds his own way into that space.

Cherry Picker comes after a period of significant change in Hoffman's life. A relationship that had lasted more than a decade had ended, and he had spent years balancing day jobs with whatever music work he could find. On Cherry Picker, Hoffman writes about love, relationships, and the things we learn about ourselves through both.

Musically, Hoffman has pointed to Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks as a “North Star” for the album, particularly its spontaneity. Musicians were given room to bring their own ideas into the sessions, with much of what they played left intact. As Hoffman describes it, “It was like layers and layers of paint on a canvas. The cohesion is somehow the looseness and lack of control.” Like the layers of paint Hoffman describes, instruments enter and disappear throughout the songs, adding texture as the arrangements swell around the choruses. Each musician adds something to what Hoffman started with, giving the songs a richness that I’m not sure would exist otherwise. It makes his approach to recording the album seem that much more inspired.

Cherry Picker is one of those albums that occupies its own space. And like the album that inspired it, there’s something a bit timeless about it. It’s filled with beautiful melodies, thoughtful arrangements, and top notch playing. It’s quite an album.