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
Slippery When Wet
The Acorn Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
There's a life you live in spite of me
And for all the fruit that bore your seed
There's a wet worm waiting by your feet
By your feet by your feet
There's another apple you don't eat
And oh I curse the weight of me
The heavy purse drug at your heels
Got tangled in our spiral spin
In our spin in our spin
The tangle that I left you in
And all the love I thought we had
A tire tread that slips when wet
And I convince myself of my belief
That behind each branch a fallen leaf
Fallen leaves fallen leaves
I count the colors at my feet
Fallen leaves fallen leaves
I count the colors at my feet
The lyrics to The Acorn's song Slippery When Wet tell a story about a panda climbing a tree, while the singer laments the weight of themselves and the past relationship that they shared with the one climbing the tree. The line "There's a life you live in spite of me" suggests that the panda is able to live their life regardless of the singer's influence. The reference to fruit bearing and a wet worm waiting by the feet creates a metaphor for missed opportunities and potential danger.
The singer then continues to express their frustration at themselves, using the metaphor of a heavy purse drug at the other person's heels. The "dead straight line that pulled you in" refers to the expectations and pressures that led to the demise of the relationship. The singer feels responsible for the tangle left behind, while also acknowledging the love they had shared. The metaphor of a tire tread slipping when wet suggests that the love was not sturdy enough to endure difficult times.
The ending lines of the song contain the repeated phrase "fallen leaves," which could symbolize the remnants of the relationship that the singer is counting as they walk away. The overall theme seems to be about accepting the end of a relationship, reflecting on what went wrong, and coming to terms with the fact that life moves on despite past mistakes and missed opportunities.
Line by Line Meaning
Panda panda climb your tree
Keep doing what you were meant to do, no matter what I say or do
There's a life you live in spite of me
You have a life to live and it doesn't involve me
And for all the fruit that bore your seed
Despite your success and accomplishments, there's always a downside
There's a wet worm waiting by your feet
Life is full of unexpected challenges and setbacks
By your feet by your feet
The challenges are always there, lurking in the background
There's another apple you don't eat
There are missed opportunities, things left undone
And oh I curse the weight of me
I regret the emotional baggage I carry with me
The heavy purse drug at your heels
My emotional baggage drags me down and affects you too
And the dead straight line that pulled you in
We had a predestined path that we had to follow
Got tangled in our spiral spin
Our lives got more complex and difficult as we kept going
In our spin in our spin
Life can be a dizzying spiral of events and reactions
The tangle that I left you in
I'm partly responsible for the difficulties you're facing now
And all the love I thought we had
The love that once bound us has faded away
A tire tread that slips when wet
The love we once had is fragile and can easily slip away
And I convince myself of my belief
I try to believe that everything will work out in the end
That behind each branch a fallen leaf
That every failure or disappointment is a stepping stone to something better
Fallen leaves fallen leaves
Failures are a natural part of life
I count the colors at my feet
I try to find the beauty in the midst of failure and disappointment
Fallen leaves fallen leaves
Failures are a natural part of life
I count the colors at my feet
I try to find the beauty in the midst of failure and disappointment
Lyrics © Peermusic Publishing, SONGS MUSIC PUBLISHING, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: HOWARD HO YAN TSUI, JEFFREY WILFRED ELLIOTT DEBUTTE, PATRICK NOEL JOHNSON, ROLF CARLOS KLAUSENER, THADIUS JEFFREY MALECKI
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Shelly Sheridan
Beautiful 💜
Manuel Deinert
I love this one!
Olivia DeCaro
such a great chill song
leuk 6
This song carry me away... so far away from this sick and sad world