A Boy And His Kite
by Chris Hess
Being the man behind things takes plenty heart. It takes plenty patience. It takes too many late hours. It takes some of most everything else.
Dave Wilton (A Boy And His Kite) has been the man behind things for some time now.
The chief engineer and head honcho at St. Ida’s recording studio in Boulder, CO, he’s turned knobs and moved sliders and given creativity from his heart to Josh Garrels, Aaron Strumpel, Trace Bundy and quite the slew of others you just might have heard of. But, that is no matter here. No matter.
Up to this point, proper A Boy And His Kite recordings have been hard and rare to come by. They pop up on compilations here and there...the latest being on the Twilight: Breaking Dawn Pt. 2 soundtrack. His song “Cover Your Tracks” sits with Passion Pit, Feist, St. Vincent and another slew of others you just might have heard of. Again, no matter here. No matter. The matter here is A Boy And His Kite and A Boy And His Kite - the musician and the album that are one and the same. Not just in moniker and title, though.
Wilton’s debut full-length is his kite, it seems. Focused and welcoming. Crafted with care and seen from miles. And if you follow the kite’s string down to its pilot, you’ll see he’s the same: “Shakin’ my bones, shakin’, shakin’” “My heart is racing like a cannon ball” “Don’t bend, don’t break” “Glory is my weakness, all I want is to seek it, to see that bright shine” Those are words that Wilton sings amongst arrangements and compositions and songs that display the clear constructive understanding of someone who’s been on both sides of the booth glass.
The songwriting is concise and imaginative. Vulnerable and confident. Mature and free in theme and structure. Moments on the record call into mind the rock of Sunny Day Real Estate and the experimentalism of Ester Drang. It is clearly, though, a record in which Wilton is true to himself: creative rock that’s rooted in influence, ethereal and smart, taking unexpected turns that make you smile.
Songs born from the heart of time spent creating for others. Ideas conceived from the heights of the shoulders of ideas born to others. Creative seeds planted everywhere, come to full season.
A Boy And His Kite marches, unfolds, and sways into the wisdom of the journey. The poem of truth. It is a steady river, paths and banks carved out by years of living water. And the water will keep moving, and the paths and banks will change and stay true.
On a record that is clearly sound, Wilton achieves this: he flies love songs that are bigger than and exist well above most hearts, but aren’t out of reach. And we’re all reaching.
(iTunes: A Boy and His Kite)
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"SonHusbandFatherWhiskeyCoffeeMusicSweaters." A stream-of-consciousness compound word describing Chris Hess and what he enjoys and what he enjoys being. Chris also enjoys being the executive director of Everyday Joe's, a non-profit volunteer-powered coffee house, concert venue, and community gathering place that loves you to bits. He has been published very few places.
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The Waking is an online literary magazine and a part of the Ruminate creative community that houses high-quality literary writing about what it’s like to be human. We are interested in short-form prose and image-text hybrid work. This art can be beautiful, it can be strange, we just ask that it feels true.