Pink Moon

Nick recorded this in two nights, mostly alone, with only an overdubbed piano on the title track. Chris Blackwell, the label head at Island, was the only one there for the sessions. He said Nick would just sit on a stool in the dark and play. Island had no idea how to market it because it wasn't a 'pop' record, but they printed a massive ad in the music press with just the lyrics to the title track. That was it. No photo. No band name. Just the weight of those songs. You've got a lot of folk and singer-songwriter stuff in your crates, but Drake is the zero point. He didn't just play guitar. He used those weird, open tunings that turned the instrument into a fucking orchestra. Most people trying to ape this style just sound like a campfire yawn, but if you look past the obvious, you see the tension. He wasn't playing for an audience. He was playing to survive. Anyway. Moving on.

source: the clerk