Kentucky poetry deserves its own shelf. It is truly unique in its bric-a-brac twigs-and-tributaries romance and its seeds-and-soil hiccupy pondering. From Wendell Berry to Richard Taylor to Crystal Wilkinson, that river runs deep and it runs unique. The lyrical work of So It Was (Kentucky’s Daniel Lobb) paddles along this historic current in “One Foot At Once.” Not just lyrical in word, either—though definitely that too. (“It doesn’t mean nothing / It’s just something I’ve seen,” why, that could be the calling card of so many of our locally-sourced poetic wonders.) Lobb’s instrumental tenderness echoes the likes of an early Julie Byrne. “One Foot At Once” wallows in a meditation only alike to the feeling of a lonely walk on a warm day outside the city. Like the sound a junebug turning over in its sleep, the mic-caught finger pickings of guitar strings draw a beautiful and welcoming measure.
It’s likely that many of you have never walked along the Elkhorn on one of the last warm days of Fall. But, even if you haven’t, you can get transported there now—just for a moment, just long enough to feel the splash of that rock you’re skipping. Come on, let’s go take a walk.
