The Eccentric Learnings of Thin Lear

Bruce Von Stiers

There is this musical artist named Matt Longo, who goes by the stage name of Thin Lear. He has for a long time been extremely interested in eccentric people whose actions and philosophies have pretty much been forgotten. It was this interest that led Thin Lear to Netta Fornario, an early twentieth century occultist, whose 1933 death has yet to be fully explained.

The interest in Fornario became an inspiration for a writing a collection of songs. Along with Fornario, Thin Lear drew inspiration form works of Harry Nilsson and Shuggie Otis along with Van Morrison's Astral Weeks.

This collection of songs eventually evolved into an album titled Wooden Cave. The album has eleven songs and a play time of thirty-six minutes. It is being released on the EggHunt Records label. The album was produced by Thin Lear and Aady Pandit.

Other writers and critics have deemed Thin Lear's music to be an eclectic mix of sounds from the likes of Wilco and Belle and reminiscent of light idyllic rock of the 1960's. I don't know about the artist comparisons, but the music on this album definitely harks back to an earlier time in light rock music.

On the album, Thin Lear plays guitar and does the vocals. He is joined on the album by a pretty good group of musicians. Those helping out on the album are Aady Pandit, Yaniv Taubenhouse, Sam Minaie, Jerad Lippi, Dan Fagen, John Raymond, Paul Longo, Andy Roninson, Brad Koegel, Yonathan Levy, Brian Sanders, Leonor Falcon, Tomoku Omura, Allyson Clare, Jonny Lam, James Leddy, John Velsor and Jay Rodriguez. Each of these musicians have multiple credits behind them and are too extensive to list here.

Nella is the song that opens the album. It is kind of a tribute to Nella Fornario, about her last known days and the highlights and angst in her life and times. The song is melodic and has great vocals.

The title track, Wooden Cave, is up next. It is one of the songs that will remind you of that 1960's idyllic rock that I mentioned earlier. It has a light, body swaying melody. But the lyrics depict a loner whose angst turns into outward.

A Simple Phrase is a soft and gentle piano and string based ballad.

The Guesthouse has a head bopping guitar, drum and keys background. There is a strange but somewhat cool guitar mesh in the song as well.

Death In A Field has a tone that might make you think of Harry Nilsson. It has some cool, light guitar.

I Thought I Was Alone is a mild, lyrical ballad.

Maniacs is a slick, moody rock tune.

Slowing things back down into a 1960's styled rock ballad comes the song Different Tune.

Behold You Now is a toe-tapping song with nice vocals and really good guitar and drums.

'93 Heap is a slow and endearing ballad.

The album ends with Your Family. The song has some wonderful strings and piano. Although the vocals are endearing, the lyrics are kind of sad.

Wooden Cave was a very interesting album. The overall themes of the songs were angst driven, yet the vocals were smooth and lyrical. Drawing from his personal experiences and his interest in eccentric personalities seemed to have framed the songs on this album in a distinct pattern of a loner whose life could be better. Or maybe not so much better.

Wooden Cave is out now. To learn more about the album, and Thin Lear, visit http://www.thinlear.com/

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© 2020 Bruce E Von Stiers