NYC-based songwriter Sam Sodomsky has been consistently releasing collections of ramshackle folk music under the moniker (or some variation on it) The Bird Calls dating back to 2011, with these acoustic recordings slowly evolving from lo-fi, home-demo song dumps to more carefully curated and cleanly recorded albums in recent years. Having signed to Ruination Records in 2022, he’s already gearing up to release his third album for the label, with Old Faithful set to arrive at the end of the month.
With lead single “Going Insane”—untrue to its name—taking the shape of a soothing and decidedly level-headed folk ballad, the album’s latest cut, “I Haven’t Been This Happy in a Long Time” embraces a similar dichotomy of tightly screwed composition and a narrator you might feel a bit worried for, albeit this time with a quickly discernible alt-country twang. “I wrote ‘I Haven’t Been This Happy in a Long Time’ in the dead of winter with the intention of doing some good, rollicking storytelling in a country song,” Sodomsky shares. “I was inspired by the songwriter Phil Lee, whose music is so funny and tender and tough, and also Jimmy Buffett, who took pleasure in filling his lyrics with details that make you slightly concerned about the desperate fun his characters are having.”
Extending the narrative to the session players joining Sodomsky on the recording, he adds: “To mirror the romantic adventure in the story, I assembled an ad-hoc rock band that features Katie ‘Katy the Kyng’ Battistoni on electric guitar, Andy Cush on bass, and drummer Jason Burger playing one of my favorite rhythm parts on the record.”
Check out the single below.
