Edward Herda has been a causal musician his whole life, but in 2011 decided to make a run at it. Leading up to that was the loss of a woman he was going to marry (who married someone three months after leaving him), and the beginning of what is now nearly six years of sobriety. A few months into that hard-won sobriety Herda decided he needed a profound change in his life. He left his cushy job in advertising and headed out to 1940’s film-set-turned tourist destination Pioneertown, CA.
Holed up in an inn working to get his head straight, Herda chain smoked reds, drank stale coffee, ate corned beef hash out of a can and wrote the majority of his first record, The Wondrous Folly of Vaughn Frogg. In March 2013 he released the record to no fanfare, booked a tour up through the Pacific Northwest, packed himself into a van with two friends, and hit the road. Camping along the way, the trio ate hot dogs around the campfire every night and made no money. The vagabond life of the traveling minstrel resonated with Herda, and he felt more alive than he had in years.
Already halfway through writing his second record, he scrapped what he had and returned to the studio with a new batch of songs, one that seemed to stitch together a theme of love, exploration, vulnerability, empathy and redemption. Goodnight Jaybird is a love story, but one much different than the first record. It’s a war story, one where one man is left standing against his shadow in the arid desert. It’s a saga, where there protagonist seeks to learn a more empathetic way of living. It’s selfless.
Recorded at The Outpost in Topanga Canyon – they say the ghosts of Woody Guthrie and Mick Fleetwood still chase steelhead in the creek on moonless nights – the record features a complete lack of hired guns but does include a brace of Herda’s talented friends. Trevor Smith (electric guitar), Curran McDowell (bass, drums), Matt Bradford (pedal steel, dobro, slide guitar), Ethan Yeager (drums), and Leah Kouba (backing vocals) join producer and multi-instrumentalist Max Allyn in crafting an eloquently composed trellis through which Herda weaves his poignant storytelling.
On the surface, Goodnight Jaybird is a collection of pretty love songs. Yet, while this is a love story, it’s also a story about understanding yourself more, moving a little more gently, and having more empathy toward people and your own struggles. “I hope that my honesty and authenticity reaches some one, if only a single line” says Herda. “The greatest loves in our lives have the ability to show us different sides of ourselves; sides we’ve likely been running from. Sounds lofty, but I don’t think I’ve experienced a more spiritual and soul enriching feeling than being completely vulnerable with another human. Being in love, offering yourself unconditionally, is a religious experience, as if kissing God him/herself. That’s what it means to me, at least.”
Glide Magazine is premiering the elegantly quaint track “Roger Maris” off Goodnight Jaybird, a track complete with aching soul and acoustic vulnerability. Like Glen Hansard or Ray Lamontagne, Herda offers those emotive vocals that strike a personal chord upon first listen and grabs the listener forthright.
“This may very well be a song that I’ll relate to for a while,” says Herda. “I started writing it in Boulder after the release of “The Wondrous Folly of Vaughn Frogg, ”freestyling the first verse. I didn’t really know what the song meant. Over the course of a year or so, I’d add lines to it here and there until the meaning became a little more clear. I’d say this song stands out for me because it was solely written from the subconscious.”
