This song came from a prompt of “a paler blue”—a phrase that fell away during rewrites. In researching what I could do with that original seed, I discovered shibori for the first time. Shibori is a traditional Japanese resist-dyeing technique. A pattern is made by binding, stitching, folding, twisting, or compressing a natural fabric, dyeing, and then releasing the binding pressure to reveal the pattern. Techniques were ancestral, handed down exclusively within artisan families. When the fabric is returned to its flat form after dyeing, the design that emerges is the result of the bound and tied three-dimensional shape. The cloth sensitively records both the form and the pressure; the “memory” of the tied shape remains imprinted in the cloth, often creating a unique texture. Each and every detail of Shibori represents a tied knot made by an artisan’s hands. The technique spoke to me of family trauma, and the stuff of life that we can eventually think of a staining—rather than the very stuff that makes us who we are, and beautiful by the design of unseen hands.
Started out clean white silk
spotless, folded and bound
Dipped in Japanese indigo
'til I felt like I’d drown
I absorbed all the darkness
I was forever transformed
Once I loosed what was binding me
Saw how I’d been adorned
All these blue and white lines of mine
Each one by design
Kaleidoscopic shadow and light
The inner shibori of time
Searched my life for the artisan
the one with blue-stained hands
The one to blame for my dark design
I’m starting to understand
All these blue and white lines of mine
Each one by design
Kaleidoscopic shadow and light
The inner shibori of time
Ink pours out, one generation to the next
Each one trying to outrun it
We all end up soaking wet
All these blue and white lines of mine
Perfect by design
Kaleidoscopic shadow and light
The inner shibori of time
credits
from Inner Shibori,
released February 11, 2022
Produced by Anne McCue and Jesse Correll
Jesse Correll: vocals
Jamie Dick: drums
Ryan Madora: electric bass
Anne McCue: acoustic guitar, electric guitars
Darius Mines: piano, wurlitzer
Strings arranged by Jesse Correll and Anne McCue; performed by The Atwood Quartet
Ryan Cockman: violin
Annaliese Kowert: violin
Ben Plotnick: viola
Kaitlyn Raitz: cello
Recorded and mixed at Skinny Elephant Recording, Nashville; engineer: Dylan Alldredge
Additional recording at Flying Machine Studio, Nashville; engineer: Anne McCue
Inner Shibori is Jesse's fourth record. The 13-song release is an album oozing luxury and longing. The production
approach; sophisticated and tastefully sentimental songs; and the smooth musicianship recalls Frank Sinatra and Chet Baker's lonely balladeering, and the type of recordings made at Capital Studios in Hollywood during the 1950s and 1960s....more
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