Eclectric folk rock, for people who like stories and good lyrics. Rayguns, food, point shoes and hearts in jars. Great acoustic and vintage electric guitar sounds. Anti folk without the outfit.

14 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Folk Pop, FOLK: Folk-Rock

Show all album songs: Field Guide to Loneliness Songs


Details:
Canadian singer/songwriter/guitarist Ben
Sures has forged a devoted underground following
made up of... nerdy twenty-something
girls, baby boomers and songwriter junkies!
We have no explanation for this demographic.
Sures has played festivals and shared stages
with everyone from Corb Lund to Rita Chiarelli
and is well known to CBC listeners across
Canada and CKUA in Alberta. This is his fourth
independent release.
Field Guide To Loneliness is for fans of storytelling
and lyrics along the lines of the
Weakerthans and Leonard Cohen: eclectic folk
rock. The album is natural sounding acoustic
music in a full band setting: acoustic guitars,
upright bass and mandolins, Lhasa-influenced
percussion and back up vocals, Ry Cooderesque
slide guitar, understated vintage electric
sounds and a hint of 1960s analog sci fi
effects.
Field Guide To Loneliness was mixed by legendary
Nashville producer Miles Wilkinson
(Guy Clark, Darell Scott, Verlon Thompson) and
produced by Sures and longtime Jann Arden
bassist/co-writer Michael Lent. Musicians
include Bruce Cockburn drummer Gary Craig,
Bebop Cowboy Burke Carroll on pedal steel,
legendary Junior Gone Wild frontman Mike
Mcdonald on harmonica, Torontoâs Sahra
Featherstone on violin, Vavid Woodhead and
more.
The themes of this record are isolation, loss,
drunkenness, science fiction, environmental
decay through the eyes of a fish, a father
remembered through lunches prepared for him
on his journeys and loners in taped up glasses
clutching their pocket protectors. Dancer is the
story of a young girl who leaves home to study
dance, and when promoted to principal her hip
gives out and she has to leave her lifeâs work
behind. This song is in medium rotation on
Magic 99 in Edmonton. The narrator in Used To
Have A Raygun solves all the everyday problems
of social awkwardness by simply firing a
âcure allâ imagined science fiction weapon at
her problems. In Til I Learned To Cook For You,
the narratorâs kitchen goes to hell after a
break up. The album closer, Man On The
Verge, is a moving, poetic masterpiece about a
man standing in a field, unable to leave.
The album is called Field Guideâ¦.. in the
hopes that the listener will be able to peer into
these songs without getting s@*t on their
shoes.
2005 winner in the folk category of
the John Lennon Songwriting contest
2006 second place winner AAA category
International Songwriting contest