Some have accused us of pedantry – no, really, they have, and yes, we agree with you that to do so is both hurtful and deeply unfair. We appreciate your support, we really do. Anyway, some have accused us of pedantry but what are we supposed to do when faced with this image: “I found a river that flows in a circle, yeah . . .I found a river that flows in a circle“? That’s got to be a lake, hasn’t it? Probably man made and if it’s flowing then there must be a pump system involved, right?
Or it’s a metaphor. For the eternal cycle of life, and how endings feel like beginnings, and how déjà vu is more than just a disturbing feeling as life repeats and repeats, the same mistakes, the same sense that nothing can change and of being perpetually stuck: “The same room is waiting on the other side of every door / Anywhere I go, I know I’ve been there before.”
And that’s what Canada’s Starpainter are singing about on I Found A River, only, in a way, they subvert that message themselves because change is now, right? Starpainter we know from their folk-rock Americana but this Starpainter have brought in some righteous fuzz courtesy of lead guitarist Joel Grey, pushing their sound into a more expansive, some might say Cosmic, direction. Cosmic Canadian Music – well, we can dig that.
That’s some thoughts on it, but there are other ways of viewing these things and songwriter and vocalist Joel Stretch tells us that “I Found a River’ explores a déjà vu feeling that hits pretty often for me. Have I been here before? In this room with these exact people having this exact conversation? It can be a nice feeling sometimes—there is comfort and pleasure to be found in life’s repetitions. I used to see life in terms of growth and forward movement; in some ways I still do, but these days I notice cycles and seasons that leave and return. So, I think this song celebrates familiarity and dependability.”
