Tune Musings: “New California Blue” by John Andrews & The Yawns (2021)
Tune Musings is a weekly series where a lifelong audiophile shares, dissects and reviews lesser known, beautiful music.
Does summer have a sound? I am not referring to the usual plethora of reverberations associated with the season like the buzz of bees, the crack of a baseball bat, or the tumbling fizzle of a crashing ocean wave. What would it sound like if you could capture the core of summer? Have you ever heard the joy of warm, long days when the sun works overtime to lengthen perceived time and illuminate dreams?
I recently stumbled upon a track that sublimely approximates the soulful murmur of summer better than any song in recent memory: John Andrews & The Yawns’ “New California Blue” (2021, Woodist Records). I include this song in a personal category of select music I dubbed long ago as “Life Stoppers.” These are tunes so potent in their desired emotional effect that life — meaning all activity, thought, or conversation I may be engaged in ceases while I give myself over to audible seduction. Absorbing new, beautiful music is serious business.
“New California Blue” is an elegant, slow tempo dirge that feels like it was composed on a sunset-kissed drive along the PCH in June. Its spare arrangement is centered around a piano, drum, and bass bedrock, upon which Andrews’ noir-like echoed vocals float like flowers on a pond. More than halfway through, a flute chimes in with an overtly giddy melody, coloring the proceedings with an optimistic flourish, all while Andrews repeats the refrain tinged with a breath of solemnity: “…Blue, blue, blue, blue.” Although its opening bars might remind some listeners (ex: me) of Classics IV’s “Spooky,” by the end fade, my ears heard the flavors of the Byrds and Spaceman 3.
Although credited to his fictional band The Yawns, “New California Blue” was apparently composed and performed solely by the former Boston psychedelic folk ensemble Quilt member. John Andrews is a true modern-day nomadic poet, traveling alone across America and documenting his life with home recordings.
A former resident of Lancaster, PA, Andrews has formed musical associations with New York State folk craftsmen Woods and Kansas City indie wunderkind Kevin Morby. He currently resides in the forests of New Hampshire, tracking his records in an “old, seedy colonial barn.”
According to this Stereogum article from 2021, Andrews explains his inspiration for “New California Blue.” In a statement accompanying the song, he calls it an ode to Joni Mitchell. “She was the soundtrack to a pretty crazy time in my life,” Andrews says. “And I got a lot of mileage out of her music, so I wanted to somehow say thank you to her through song.”
Listening to “New California Blue,” I am awed by Andrews’ ability to inspire within me visions of summers past and present — conjuring flashbacks of grandiose childhood and adult moments spent sharing the comfort and affections of friends and lovers: endless August days at the beach boogie-boarding with cousins…..lounging on my parents’ deck, smoking Marlboro Lights and talking to a girl on the phone until 2:30 am…playing Frisbee with the neighborhood pals under the fierce July sun for hours on end.
I feel these memories within every beat and note of “New California Blue.”
The song reinforces the transcendent power of sound and our personal journeys when we engage with art at an individual level. It is for experiences such as this that I continue to seek out and unearth new music. I never know where and when it will take me next.
