American singer-songwriter Michael McArthur gives C&I a first listen to his album Ever Green, Ever Rain.
Soulful singer-songwriter Michael McArthur finds a ray of hope in the darkest of times with his forthcoming LP, Ever Green, Ever Rain.
Due out January 25, the new record shows an entrancing new side of the artist. With his emotionally confessional ballads, cinematic sounds, and hushed intimacy, he achieves and conveys a sort of state of grace, most evident perhaps on the song “Elaine”:
“We’re all birds, we all fly / We all live to touch the sky / And maybe love is all we need / If you’ve been low, as low can be / Close your eyes, see what you see / And never mind the ever-fleeting things …
Songwriting has always been a form of therapy for the Florida native. His music can equally exude anguish, self-discovery, and loneliness, inviting listeners in with soul-stirring, soul-baring tracks.
“I sit on my front porch a lot and think, and in the summertime, watch the daily thunderstorms,” McArthur says. “Sometime last June, I stumbled across the name of the album. I’m drawn to the idea that the destroying of one thing is the creation of a new thing. You can't have the green without the rain. I don't look at it as ‘You have to have the hard times so you can appreciate the good times.’ The way I see it is ‘You have to have them both.’ Like food and drink.”
McArthur says 2017 was a tough year: “Tougher than the rest. A lot of rain. I’d already logged several years of writing and performing and searching, and somewhere in the midst, I found myself in danger of losing the woman I love most. So I disappeared. I took time off to help repair our relationship. But I never stopped writing. I collected about 50 songs from hundreds of pages of lyrics. Put them all in a three-ring binder and drove from Florida to California to record them.”
Out of the travail and travel came his first full-length record. Album highlights include the quietly moving “Elaine”; the instrumental opener, “Earth and Space”; the musically quirky “Save Me From the Fire”; and the deeply personal and evocative “Rest’s Unknown.”
“As an artist, I define success as finding the courage to be who you are and who you want to be at the same time while remaining unwilling to sacrifice the truth in your art for the spotlight,” McArthur says. “True art takes you somewhere you haven’t been and shows you around. Then it stays with you like a childhood memory — almost as if you’ve known it all along. Ever Green, Ever Rain is the most honest album I've made. I'm a private person, but I find it easy to speak freely in music. I said everything I needed to say. I did the best I could. And for that, I'm proud."
Get an exclusive first listen to McArthur’s Ever Green, Ever Rain, below.
For more information on Michael McArthur, Ever Green, Ever Rain, and his upcoming tour dates, visit his website.
