With a musical style that goes back perhaps a century or so, Daphne Parker Powell‘s ‘Scorched Earth And Flood’ is a melancholic telling of a tale as old as time.
‘Scorched Earth & The Flood’, released on the 23rd of January, is the first single from Parker Powell’s upcoming 10 track album, ‘The Death Of Cool’, which is set to drop on the 22nd of May.
Produced by platinum album selling artist, Jimbo Mathus, and engineered and mixed by Grammy Award winner, Mike Napolitano, ‘The Death Of Cool’ features an array of artists from the musical royalty of New Orleans, Mississippi, and Muscle Shoals – including Preservation Hall’s Wendell and Caroline Brunious, Charlie Halloran and Brent Rose, Kirk “Bowie” Russell, among many others.
All this goes into making a superb release, with first drop, ‘Scorched Earth & The Flood’ superb right from the very first drum beat, and piano notes. It’s when Parker Powell’s vocals come in, however, rich, powerful, and with a tinge of sadness, that we get an idea of just how much so. Her voice is bluesy without ever becoming brassy, and she’s soon accompanied by trombone, clarinet, and saxophone – both alto and tenor – as well as acoustic and electric guitar and an upright bass. We are instantly transported back in time, and can easily picture Parker Powell and band playing at a speakeasy.
‘Scorched Earth & The Flood’ perhaps harks back to an even earlier time, the days of Noah, no less, with the idea that God had had enough of the deceit of humankind and decided to start all over again. But humans being humans, we just keep going back and doing it all over again.
Speaking about the single, Parker Powell calls it, “a very unsubtle nod to Anaïs Nin, of course. We can’t help loving who we love. Sure, as we learn our lessons, we refine what we are willing to tolerate and for how long, but that doesn’t stop us loving. And we walk through the heart, each chamber like a room where we pin up our butterflies even when they cease to flutter”.
And this is indeed seen in the lyrics:
In my four chambered heart, I have plastered all the walls
With the scraps and the maps that I’ve found to make sense of it all
She continues, “In a way, this song may be the true heart of the album – the journeying that finally brings you back to yourself”.
‘Scorched Earth & The Flood’ is accompanied by a music video that overlays separate scenes. Black and white rendering of the band performing, scraps of paper, with the song’s lyrics typed on them, burned to ashes, additional footage of Parker Powell singing in profile, and then, curiously, caterpillars metamorphosing into butterflies, reflecting the end of the song, where the singer realises they don’t have to go back to what they were before; just like the caterpillar, they’ve rebuilt themselves entirely, and are a whole beautiful new being.
Watch the music video for ‘Scorched Earth & The Flood’ below, and find out more about Daphne Parker Powell and her music online on her official website, Facebook, and Instagram.
