ENCINITAS — Local musician and poet Darius Degher has released a single from his upcoming album.
“Ode to California” will be on “Rhyme in the Wreckage,” which is due to release Aug. 8.
The album includes 10 songs with lyrics that draw on Degher’s background as a poet with folkie-sounding accompaniment, according to the artist.
The album will feature performances by Cindy Lee Berryhill, Cathryn Beeks, and Degher’s two daughters, Cleopatra and Cordelia. Don Teschner has added violin and other strings on two songs, and Carl Byron has added a squeeze-box on two others.
For now, listeners can check the new single, which gives tribute to his beloved home state, on the streaming platforms Spotify and Bandcamp, as well as a lyric video on YouTube.
“Personally, during these difficult times when the ship of America is foundering on the reef, I see California as a beacon of hope and a place of refuge. That’s really what inspired the ‘Ode to California,'” Degher said. “And if California ever secedes (which of course will never happen), I offer this song as its potential national anthem.”
Beyond his tribute to California, other songs on the album cover topics like riding bicycles, experiencing a major earthquake in Los Angeles, a train ride to Orange County, and the “greatest lies of human history,” Degher explained.
“I was just gonna make an album of simple acoustic guitar recordings like my last one, but once the overdubbing began, some of the arrangements got a little more complicated,” he said. “A maid-rite ‘family-size’ washboard provides most of the percussion, even the ‘snare’ sounds. I played the guitar and bass parts myself using various Gibson, Fender, Martin, Taylor and Gretsch instruments.
