Written by: Dave Cantrell

As he so often is, despite any protestations he would surely offer, Kramer, quiet as he may ostensibly seem, is one of our most fearless seers. We say this even in the face of the potentially withering irony that might come with such a claim given the title and tone of new track “The Crying” off his upcoming album  And the Wind Blew It All Away (via the revivified Shimmy-Disc label in conjunction with Joyful Noise), the video for which we premiere today. Truth be told, however, there is no surprise or paradox inside any of this at all. To the extent that fearlessness equates with strength there are few greater tests than opening oneself up to the entire wayward snarl and noise and chaos that is our inner selves. Strength, after all, is not the exclusive province of the muscular or taciturn (far from it, in fact) but rather – and emphatically – finds its truest expression when one admits the entire spectrum of human experience into one’s, shall we say, theater of vulnerability. We would, in fact, go so far as to say ‘strength equals vulnerability” and would brook no argument because there is none. It’s a point of view we suspect Kramer, trailing like all of us toward the dusk, would nod his head to in silent concurrence. To support that belief, we simply turn you toward the video below.

Beyond the powerfully bespoke imagery with which it opens (and that could not be more poignantly illustrative of the song’s emotional core) and through the sequence of disconcerting, unsettling imagery that follows, the very gist of the above-mentioned conundrum is burst open and explored without stint. There is a heartbreaking-ness, there is the tremble of existence, its vastness and petty disregard, but there is also, in the very fact that the track is here before us, a resilience. It may very well be a ‘resilience despite itself’ but it is one no less. Beyond announcing Kramer’s first truly solo album in some 23 years, “The Crying,” both in sound and visual representation, brings us a portrait of an artist that refuses, as ever, to hide behind artifice, to front with any show of false bravado (a phrase that is redundant to a point of absurdity), instead proceeding as straight ahead and hellbent as possible through the sheer wonderment of pain and loss and age, damn life’s shitty torpedoes. For perspective, we offer this snippet of insight from the artist himself but ultimately feel it’s best, as always, to let the work speak for itself, so yes, roll that video, there’s a bravery in it. [pre-order And the Wind Blew It All Away here]

“I’m not at all sure of where this one came from. The pandemic? Yet another failed collaboration (the most recent one of so very many, after three decades of working alone)? Repeated estrangements from my daughter, each new one lasting longer than the previous one? Or is it the cumulative weights of all three? We give up on Love when we imagine that Love has given up on us…”