CRAIG BICKHARDT
The More I Wonder
Stone Barn 1009

www.craigbickhadt.com
 

Craig Bickhardt is a precisionist.

By that I mean he crafts his songs with precision from the sharply wrought lyrics to the attention grabbing melodies and the exquisite arrangements he gives them.

The album’s subtitle is “12 scenes from life, love and family,” and indeed many of Craig’s songs derive directly from real life. The opener “Giant Steps” is specifically about his son Jake and the difficult road his health has given him. The song is furiously upbeat, and so is Jake. Others simply apply to real life. Case in point: “It Opens,” a song about seizing opportunities when life grants them to you. This one had a major role In a personal quest to find a woman I’d not seen in thirty-seven years and had searched for seventeen years. I found her in August 2014 and as I was on the final leg to meeting her at the house she was closing up I played “It Opens” over and over keying upon the refrain “It don’t look like a door/But it opens” to help me grit up for meeting her which by the way went beautifully but ultimately proved bittersweet. Seems I found her 9-10 months after she had reconnected with another guy from college years and was moving from Annapolis to Maui 6 time zones away to be with him. But that will be another song another time. Since then I have been keeping the song in mind and keeping its spirit actively alive in me to try to keep my newly recovered boldness up. Couldn’t have handled it as well as I did without Craig’s song.

“I’ll Know When You Need Me” limns a spiritual and loving bond with a life of its own. “Momentary World” dedicated to Craig’s wife Eileen is about seizing life bright moments and holding on to them. “There Is No Night” asks the questions that keep one involved with living. “Stan” co-written with Nathan Bell is the story of a Bethlehem, Pennsylvania working man reduced to a shell after his job and all hope left when the factory closed.

Throughout the support is spot on. The arrangements illuminate the songs building on Craig’s voice and guitar which were recorded live as the bases for the tracks. He is an excellent fingerpicker, and his guitar arrangements show the same precision as his songs and singing. Special note to Craig’s daughter Aislinn Bickhardt whose harmony vocals are both essential and gorgeous. The players never overshadow the songs. Instead they make them richer.

Craig Bickhardt’s songs have become part of my life. Sometimes as noted above they help show me a way through a tough stretch. They brighten days and make them better, sometimes in the most unexpected and essential ways.

Craig has met resistance to his work mainly due to success he had co-writing songs when he lived in Nashville. He deserves much better than such dismissal. His work has become ever more personal, album by album, and here on The More I Wonder he has done his finest work yet. His playing and singing are gorgeous. The songs have depth and resonance. The production is apt and lovely, always setting the songs to their best advantage. It is a rich and rewarding album of songs that will stick with you. And as “It Opens” just did with me, they might really impact your life powerfully.

— Michael Tearson