A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing

by Tenci

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Art Fin Jess has a fascinating "singing cowboy" voice but in a modern indie-pop setting. At times Jess reminds me of early Angel Olsen but has their own distinctive style. Favorite track: Be.

colehutchison fuck yes MORE SAXOPHONE

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1.	Shapeshifter 01:18	lyrics	buy track
Climb to the top of the magic tree I’ll show you how I’m changing I’m a flaming lake With a waning moon I’m a diamond ring In a thick lagoon Butterfly with clay-sewn wings Shapeshifting Shapeshifting
2.	Vanishing Coin 02:12	lyrics	buy track
Vanishing like the pebbles in your shoe Disappear me like pennies in the fountain Brand new, brand new I thought that we were friends, Diane A forgotten push pin Knuckles, turned white Time to release Nothing, feels right, but Singing The same song Again and again Hoping you hear me Praying you see me I thought that we were friends, Diane A forgotten push pin
3.	Be 05:36	lyrics	buy track
Got two eyes, one mouth, two feet I’ll lay down so you can see Is this enough For you to talk to me Do I have to dance around Stand on my head big and loud What do I have to do To be good like you Just because we make a sound Doesn’t mean we hear ourselves I’m as quiet as can be Be Be Be Be
4.	Great Big Elephant 02:45	lyrics	buy track
Change comes Light lightning Painfully try to grasp it Sick feeling Who’s that? We should just throw it down the well The well What the hell Who’s that big elephant in the room Knows something blind to me and you Strange creature, guide me Or I might throw myself down the well The well What the Hell
5.	Cold Dirty Water 03:58	lyrics	buy track
Opened my eyes, opened my eyes You weren’t there Followed your smell to the kitchen You were yellin’ In the drain I put my hand in cold dirty water I stuck my tongue in cold dirty water Followed your cry, followed your cry To the backyard The puppy licking at the puddle I drank some too She bit my hand I saw your face in cold dirty water I drowned myself in cold dirty water The puppy ran
6.	The Ball Spins 02:46	lyrics	buy track
We sit on the floor Watch the ball spin We sit on the floor Watch the ball spin It spins spins spins spins spins spins spins spins spins She dropped the jam but it didn’t break she dropped the jam but it didn’t break Break, break, break, break Break, break, break, break Break Our cars out front and it’s burning Our cars out front and it’s burning Its warm warm warm warm warm warm warm warm warm You kissed my lips and they stayed closed You kissed my lips and they stayed closed Closed closed closed closed closed closed closed closed closed We can’t get used to the feeling of skin that’s writhing and weaning spin, break, safe, warm, closed
7.	Sharp Wheel 02:35	lyrics	buy track
Drink from the stream of mother’s milk Drips to the mirror in your mouth Wipe down the picture with your spit Don’t be scared, we deserve it Don’t be scared, we deserve it It’s a sharp wheel Made of glass Will the bright light Leave my lips Scary clowns under my bed You tell me funny jokes instead Knock knock I’m the best you’ve ever had I can’t believe you Is that sad? I can’t believe you Is that sad? It’s a sharp wheel Made of glass Will the bright light Leave my lips Won’t let the bright light Leave my fist
8.	Out of Body 03:50	lyrics	buy track
Put my mind in a pickled jar on the shelf I’ll watch it from the other room Wait for it to come back to me I’ll wait for it to come back to me Come back to me Come back to me Come back to me Come back to me Come back Come back to me Come back See my soul Dance around the room Take it’s seat in the corner on the floor My eyes are dried to the wall behind me I’ll cry for it to come back to me Come back to me Come back to me Come back to me Come back to me Come back Come back to me Come back Watch my spirit Open up the window Wants to go eat some pie Pinch my skin as hard as I can again So I can go for the ride
9.	Sour Cherries 06:14	lyrics	buy track
How did you get yourself here When your leg is dripping blood Don’t you think you’ve had enough Don’t you think you’ve had enough Enough Bruised melon Hanging low Dissolve me Into your marrow Cherry Cherry Cherry Cherry Rotten fruit We love to eat it, eat it slow Sweet poison Wrap your arms around me Cherry Cherry Cherry Cherry Love is sour cherries Love is sour cherries Love is sour cherries Love is sour
10.	Swallow Me Whole, Blue 04:50	info	buy track
11.	Two Cups 04:28	lyrics	buy track
Put the can Against the wall Would you call, would you Call I didn’t know I had to wait to fill my cup I won’t wait, I won’t wait To fill my cup Baby’s crying For her milk Well now it’s dripping Down the crease of your arm I didn’t know I had to wait To fill my cup I won’t wait, I won’t wait, I won’t wait To fill my cup I didn’t know I had to wait To fill my cup I won’t wait, I won’t wait, I won’t wait Fill my cup Fill my cup Fill my cup Fill my cup
12.	Memories 02:20	lyrics	buy track
Memories, memories I’ll take them with me In a bag, in the back, of a car, where you kissed me Put the sand, in my hand, from the glass Ruby red, portal man Crystal clear picture Crystal clear picture Memories, memories I’ll take them with me In a glass, balance act, on my nose Sweet relief

about

A well is a stone-encircled place of depth, keeping an abundance of water for survival. “Well” is also a phrase for pause, for transition in language. Our tears can well up and bubble over. To define ourselves as “well” is the most basic term of goodness.

What’s on the other side of the well? Inside the tunnel of change, or this life, we can either feel intimidated by the darkness of uncertainty, or excited by the possibility of nourishment. Songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist Jess Shoman wonders, “what the hell,” why don’t we go for the excess of love we deserve? Tenci’s album A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing becomes a gathering and collection of well-like vessels – cups, puddles, fists – to hold tight to this love and newfound joy.

A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing is Tenci’s second album, coming after their 2020 debut My Heart Is An Open Field, which introduced Jess Shoman’s music explorations to the world. Shoman admits that their first album dealt with letting go of painful life experiences, resulting in emptiness. In this recent collection of wiser years and distance from that former grief, Tenci carries an opposite feeling, a celebration of self-rejuvenation. A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing shows Shoman steering their inventive music further and wilder, spilling over with 12 fable-like songs. In a combination of milk, coins, glass, water, and light, each song forms a spell to “fill my heart back up,” Shoman says, “by reframing complex feelings by turning my head sideways and seeing them in a different way.”

From the close-knit Chicago scene, Shoman is joined by Curtis Oren on saxophone and guitar, Izzy Reidy on bass (Izzy True), and Joseph Farago on drums (Joey Nebulous). The years following My Heart is an Open Field saw the band playing shows together all over the country before regrouping in
Chicago to record A Swollen River with engineer Abby Black. While the themes of Tenci shuffle around a serious pool of thought, trying to understand life’s calamities, their live sets often feature an ample amount of goofy light-heartedness. Their playful interplay of loose drums and bass, huffing sax, and vocal waterfalls leave us warmer than before. The songs on A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing weave together like twigs to create that fire, a burning message to keep going.

The album begins with “Shapeshifter,” which Shoman says is about “piecing yourself together, shape-shifting into someone new,” and finding power in this new form. Setting the tone for the rest of the record, the brief song appears like a glimmering poem in darkness, unveiling an undeniable newness to their sound. “I’m a diamond ring / in a thick lagoon / Butterfly with clay-sewn wings,” sings Shoman. Like the transformation Shoman sings of, the track grows and morphs with stacked guitars and the harmonies of bandmates' voices.

Tenci’s sonic evolution is further reinforced by the upbeat immediacy of “Vanishing Coin.” Shoman’s soft and trilling vocals fuel the song’s imagery as a friendship vanishes and another well appears, as a wish from a coin tossed into that well never comes to fruition. “Two Cups” continues this interplay between folk and rock genres, as a tough and sweet guitar solo converses, “I won’t wait,” fizzling towards freedom. Unlike a public fountain, a personal cup can be filled on your own terms towards abundance.

Tenci’s songs on A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing often appear simplistic at first, then split off to unruly places of boiling self recognition. On “Sour Cherries,” the band starts simple and slow, introducing the brutal fruit of love and the theme of wanting excess: “don’t you think you’ve had enough?” As Tenci gets deeper and huskier, they dip into one of the album’s most exciting and unexpected sections.

Shoman explains the idea behind “The Ball Spins” as “watching the ball spin - as in the world - but also as mundane as a ball on the ground. The world burns with so much sadness and destruction and I am witnessing it in a very desensitized way.” Living during an ongoing pandemic, dangerous nationalism, and climate change, to name a few, can feel so painful, it’s numbing. Tenci attempts to create art out of that metaphorical car on fire outside. Instead of disassociating, Shoman hopes to find commonality in communal care.

Just as the band name Tenci comes from Shoman’s grandmother Hortencia, the legacy of family is woven into the album. “Swallow Me Whole, Blue” comes from Shoman’s mother’s memory of her childhood dog, Blue, who was poisoned by the neighborhood kids: “They threw a poison bone / it cast a spell on you.” Perhaps Shoman’s longing to protect and know Blue is the same longing to protect their family’s memories. The album closes with “Memories”: in a bare folk song, their guitar, and their memories, echoed by the audio of an old family video. The voices of parents, grandparents, and children filter in and out, fuzzy against the assertion of a “crystal clear picture.” “Memories” captures the feeling of “knowing that at the end of your life, you will have your memories to fill your heart,” Shoman says.

Tenci has traveled through a spout that leads to a restorative lake, finding a new place of compositional and lyrical complexity on A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing. All of this fullness bursts forth from words and ideas jotted in Shoman’s journal. The notebook’s cover is made from a repurposed children’s book titled “Great Big Elephant.” Shoman’s own writing often feels like a nursery rhyme, a naming of animals and clowns under your bed, a recipe for understanding life, and hopefully, each other.

Bio written by Delia Rainey <3

credits

released November 4, 2022

All songs written by Jess Shoman

Recorded by Abby Black
Mixed by Melina Duterte
Mastered by Piper Payne

Guitar, Vocals, Xylophone by Jess Shoman
Sax, Flute, Guitar, Clarinets, Backing Vocals, Track 1 + 10 Keys by Curtis Oren
Drums, Track 4 Keys, Backing Vocals by Joseph Farago
Bass, Backing Vocals, Violin by Isabel Reidy
Auxiliary Percussion by Abby Black

Album Cover Photo by Zachary Belcher

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about

Tenci Chicago, Illinois

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email: [email protected]

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Dec 12

Constellation

Chicago, IL

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