![]() Embracing the expressive autonomy and stylistic simplicity associated with an “outsider artist,” Reeder has graced his releases with his own cover art, played all of his compositions himself, and designed and built many of his instruments and recording equipment. ![]() There he had already established himself as a visual artist before he sent a copy of some of his musical work to John Prine, whose Nashville-based Oh Boy Records would release his debut album in 2004. I talk, they listen.” If Cohen fashioned piercing beauty out of the futile balancing of existential alternatives, then singer, songwriter, and visual artist Reeder sees a cosmic farce instead, drawing on his dry wit and cynicism to dismiss the illusion of choice with a childish playfulness.īorn in Louisiana’s Cajun Country in 1954, the California-raised artist has been a resident of Nuremburg, Germany, for over three decades. ![]() Neither are Reeder’s paintings, which include Buddhas who “just sit there” and a prophet so self-satisfied that he declares “It’s great. In his song “Bird On The Wire,” Leonard Cohen lamented: “I have tried in my way to be free.” Of course, the tune itself was a kind of “bird on a wire,” precariously seated between overstatement and understatement, or between “asking for more” and “not asking for so much.” Attempting to dramatize that (in his own way) over 30 years later, Dan Reeder sings “Love and pain / go together like thunder and rain / like bitch and complain / like choo choo and train.” No, not so subtle. Album artwork for Dan Reeder’s recent releases.
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