Anchored by vivid songwriting and eclectic instrumentation, The Acorn produce an original brand of experimental, popular folk music that effortlessly marries modern and traditional forms. Inspired by the natural beauty of the Outaouais region, and with his principle projects all on hiatus, Rolf Klausener started writing under the moniker The Acorn in the summer of 2002.
Initially an excuse to teach himself home-recording, these furtive experiments quickly started eating up the majority of his free time. These early musings would eventually become The Acorn’s first full-length release, The Pink Ghosts. A mellifluous, mostly-instrumental tribute to the Ottawa region, The Pink Ghosts was by released in July 2004 on Jon Bartlett’s proudly independent community-based label, Kelp Records. By this time, The Acorn had grown to include the talents of guitarist Jeff Debutte, visual artist and guitarist Howie Tsui and drummer Jeffrey Malecki.
In the fall of 2005, they released Blankets! , a more melodically focused effort showcasing the bands emerging synthesis of experimental folk and pop. Blankets! earned the band notable praise from CBC radio, independent media, and campus radio stations across the country. Inspired by the road and the communities they discovered beyond their sleepy capital city, The Acorn made every effort to travel the country, touring independently and as often as they could. Throughout 2005, they forged ties with a new, burgeoning independent Canadian music scene which grew to include Ohbijou, We’re Marching On, Snailhouse, Elliott Brood, Montreal’s People for Audio and many more.
A genealogical quest in late 2005 would prove to be the bands most challenging and sprawling project to date. Having lost his father to cancer at the age of 16, Rolf began conducting interviews with his Honduran-born Mother, Gloria Esperanza Montoya, to help form a more complete picture of his family. These interviews, both harrowing and awe-inspiring, would push Rolf to apply for several arts grants to produce a song-cycle based on them. In the spring of 2006, The Acorn was awarded an Ontario Arts Council grant and City of Ottawa music grant to produce Glory Hope Mountain. The immensity and scope of the project triggered an insurmountable bout of writers block, forcing Rolf to spend his time poring over his recorded interviews and researching Honduran native music and culture. Taking a break from the album, the band called up Montreal friend, pianist Keiko Devaux, and booked three days at Ottawa’s legendary Little Bullhorn Prods (Kathleen Edwards, Wooden Stars, Howe Gelb, etc.) to document some older material. It might have been the nausea-inducing heat, or the clock on the wall, but the band squeezed out three new songs as well, and walked out of the studio that weekend with a new six song EP titled Tin Fist.
Tin Fist was released on Toronto’s Paper Bag Records (Woodhands, Laura Barrett, Deadly Snakes, Tokyo Police Club, etc.) in late 2006 to glowing reviews. The band followed with their first headlining tour. With the unerring expertise of Little Bullhorn’s Jarrett Bartlett and a lot of borrowed equipment, The Acorn spent the first seven months of 2007 finishing Glory Hope Mountain in a rented house in Ottawa’s Centretown.
Not quite biography nor musical folk tale, Glory Hope Mountain, harbours the triumphs, discoveries, sorrow and life-affirming adventures of a life both remarkable and happily modest. Armed with drums, gut-strings, ukuleles, marimbas and the collective’s best songwriting to date, The Acorn created a stirring musical document. Since the release of Glory Hope Mountain, The Acorn have graced the cover of Canada’s National music magazine, Exclaim, garnered innumerable rave reviews across Canada, the United States, and abroad, both online and in print, and were nominated to the 2008 Polaris Award long list.
free EPs available at the band's web site: http://theacorn.ca
http://www.myspace.com/theacorn
Cobbled From Dust
The Acorn Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The sum of all your solid parts
I soak you up and let you fuel my follies
The same events were cuased long ago.
I watch you bite my legs off
I humbly dropped my gloves off to fight;
That's sane?
But they stir your heart.
Here again, a simple verse
It echoes love on through the wind and wires
Or the ring of the phone
We're destined to get swallowed whole
So I'd rather not stay home tonight
Cause what we want is here
In the face of the fight
Yeah what we want is here
In the fact of the fight.
The first verse of The Acorn's song "Cobbled From Dust" seems to be a poetic metaphor for the idea of taking in everything that a person is - their solid parts - and letting it fuel personal desires and follies. The line "the same events were caused long ago" suggests a cyclical nature of human behavior - that no matter how much individual circumstances change, people tend to repeat the same mistakes and patterns. The line "I watch you bite my legs off" indicates a sense of powerlessness in the face of a force that can essentially disable or harm someone, but the following line shows a willingness to fight anyway. The last line of the verse, "you can't understand the clouds above your head, but they stir your heart," could refer to the intangible, unpredictable nature of emotions and how they can be influenced by things outside of our control.
The next verse of "Cobbled From Dust" seems to be about the desire to connect with others amid the chaos of life. The lines "it echoes love on through the wind and wires, or the ring of the phone" suggest that even if physical proximity is impossible, people can still reach each other through various means of communication. The idea of being "destined to get swallowed whole" could be a metaphor for the inevitability of death and the idea that people must make the most of life while they can. The repetition of "what we want is here" in the chorus suggests that despite the hardships and battles of life, there is something worth fighting for or holding onto. Overall, "Cobbled From Dust" seems to be a song about the complexities of human emotion, the cyclical nature of life, and the desire to find meaning and connection in a confusing world.
Line by Line Meaning
Here it is against my belly
I am holding something close to me, feeling its weight and solidity
The sum of all your solid parts
This thing I am holding is made up of all its physical components
I soak you up and let you fuel my follies
I am absorbing this thing into myself, letting it influence my behavior and decisions
The same events were caused long ago.
These events have happened before, and history repeats itself
I watch you bite my legs off
I am observing something that is damaging or harming me
I humbly dropped my gloves off to fight;
Despite feeling vulnerable, I am willing to stand up and defend myself
That's sane?
Is this a rational or reasonable thing to do?
You can't understand the clouds above your head
There are things beyond our comprehension or understanding
But they stir your heart.
Even the unknown can evoke powerful emotions within us
Here again, a simple verse
Once more, I am expressing myself through words and music
It echoes love on through the wind and wires
My message of love is carried through the airwaves and technology
Or the ring of the phone
Even a simple phone call can have a significant impact on our lives
We're destined to get swallowed whole
We are fated to be consumed or overwhelmed by something larger than ourselves
So I'd rather not stay home tonight
I want to go out and experience life, rather than hiding away
Cause what we want is here
We have the opportunity to achieve our desires
In the face of the fight
Despite obstacles or opposition, we can still overcome and succeed
Yeah what we want is here
Our goals are within reach, and we should seize the moment
In the fact of the fight.
We can use the challenges we face as motivation to strive harder
Contributed by Jordyn S. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
vi008
... unfortunat. underrated...