Description
Highliner is the third solo album by the American singer and songwriter Jason Harrod of Harrod and Funck fame, Kickstarter-funded and independently released on Lincoln City Records in September 2013. The album was produced and engineered by Brian McTear. Harrod released an acoustic version of the album simply entitled Highliner Acoustic the following year.
Highliner sounds much like his previous records: a hybrid of twangy folk, superb guitar work, and catchy hooks. But this record is more polished, in part because it was funded by a very successful Kickstarter campaign. The record interchanges stories from Harrod’s personal life with fantastical tales and folk romps. For example, in back-to-back tracks, «Moon Mission» and «Grandma», he memorializes the underappreciated last man on the moon, astronaut Eugene Cernan, and pays tribute to his grandmother.
On «One of These Days», Harrod promises to “get it right,” but then counters, “until then I want to get so gone, I want to be so wrong, I want to see what damage I can do.” He refers to himself as a “bitter old batch” and “a filthy old rat” who is “sinking down to a deep dark place.” Still, he invites the listener along: “I’m thinking when I’m sinking I don’t want to sink alone.”
«Mountain», the third song on Highliner, neatly describes Harrod’s lifetime experience with faith: “When I came down off the mountain/ I was breaking like a wave, rolling over everything in sight/ Shining like a silver-plated nickel in the sun/ I was dispersed across the universe of light./ Scannin’ the horizon looking for a sign of you/ When I saw your silhouette my heart stopped/ But then I got up close and found out it was just a ghost/ And I was sad that I had left the mountaintop.”
Harrod tells “I knew vaguely that it was a ‘God song’ when I wrote «Mountain». But when I was asked to talk with a youth group at a Detroit church about how my faith affects my songwriting, it became very clear to me that the song is autobiographical. The last verse of «Mountain» isn’t about resting in God’s arms or about resting in faith, it’s about climbing a mountain looking for God. So there’s an element of dissatisfaction and searching.”
There’s reason to be hopeful for Harrod, however. In «Chains», the eighth track on ‘Highliner,’ he sings, “I’m not old/ I’m not young/ I been down/ but I’m not done/ I believe, I don’t know why/ Only you can make me shine.” [Jonathan D. Fitzgerald, CT, October 2013]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/highliner/719589862)
CD tracklist:
01. Snowstorm – 3:22
02. Train – 3:42
03. When I Came Down Off The Mountain – 4:08
04. Moon Mission – 4:02
05. Grandma – 2:18
06. Outposts – 4:58
07. One Of These Days – 3:05
08. Chains – 3:45
09. Nemo Incognito – 3:11
10. Movie Song – 5:04
11. Naomi – 3:47
Note: Released on both CD and 12-inch vinyl LP by Lincoln City Records. Available at Bandcamp: https://music.jasonharrod.com/album/highliner
“Moon Mission” (MUSIC VIDEO)
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