Earlier this week while I was walking home from a night out with friends I was surprised by a stranger who randomly yelled out to me across an intersection, “How do you do this all the time?” I assumed by the question and the incredulous affectation that colored his sho
ut that this fellow had to be the sort of out-of-towner used to strolling casually along level sidewalks, not straining to climb them. Living in San Francisco’s Chinatown for eleven years has provided me with plenty of street-side entertainment in the form of visitors struggling to get from point A to point B and these hapless pedestrians have become common fodder for egregious porchfront commentary among my friends and I, especially the drunk ones falling uphill. I offered the winded tourist no reply, but I began to sing to myself a song that hadn’t invaded my head space for some time, “all we need is just a little patience...”
, I am reminded of two recent, overlooked releases that guild a gentle acoustic sound that is characteristically rock while also spiritually folk: Nagisa Ni Te’s Yosuga and Karl Blau’s Nature's Got A Way.
ut that this fellow had to be the sort of out-of-towner used to strolling casually along level sidewalks, not straining to climb them. Living in San Francisco’s Chinatown for eleven years has provided me with plenty of street-side entertainment in the form of visitors struggling to get from point A to point B and these hapless pedestrians have become common fodder for egregious porchfront commentary among my friends and I, especially the drunk ones falling uphill. I offered the winded tourist no reply, but I began to sing to myself a song that hadn’t invaded my head space for some time, “all we need is just a little patience...”
What W. Axel Rose and his Guns N’ Roses showed the world with their slowest, most patient song, "Patience," was a sensitive vulnerability, unrestrained by the tired power ballad format, that balanced out all the hollyweird, small-man anger their sleazier hits that flaunted to the top of the charts. "Patience" made it to number four in the US and I know for a fact that it continues to enjoy slurred and spirited karaoke renditions the world over, though, as a choice cut, it bodes ill for the novice due to its length and monotony (Kimberly Starling of The Karaoke Informer says it's one of the top 5 songs that tends to bomb: "It just eludes the average ear and when you get off key on this one it sounds to the ear like a turd in a punch bowl looks to the eye.") However, with "Patience" in mind
, I am reminded of two recent, overlooked releases that guild a gentle acoustic sound that is characteristically rock while also spiritually folk: Nagisa Ni Te’s Yosuga and Karl Blau’s Nature's Got A Way.
