‘Measure of Degree‘ is taken from David Hobbes’ new, and debut, album ‘Searching for a Home‘, which is out on November 17th. It’s an album that in a way owes a debt to Wilco – in a roundabout way admittedly. Hobbes had some songs but was ambivelent about cutting an album, as he says “It doesn’t really make sense in an age of streaming services. Frankly, there’s times I’m not even sure a song makes sense. The 6 most ineffective words in the English language might be, ‘I wrote a song about that.‘”
[Deputy-Ed comment: We don’t like to be contrary, but you know what? An album can make a lot of sense – as a way for an artist to expand on their vision or, and yes here comes the concept album justification, tell a connected tale – let’s flag up Drive By Truckers or Richmond Fontaine or VanWyck and leave it at that.]
Anyway, back to David Hobbes’ story – it so happened that he had a Damascan conversion, but on the way to Idaho – Hobbes found himself listening to Jeff Tweedy’s ‘How to Write One Song‘ while driving through Idaho. As Tweedy’s infectious enthusiasm for the importance of song restored his own faith in songwriting, Hobbes began writing the album’s title track, ‘Searching for a Home.’ You may be wondering why David Hobbes was driving through Idaho – well he’d made a last-minute decision to go to a music conference and it was just as well he did because he caught the end of the final songwriting session being led by producer Rachel Efron. Over time, they developed his songs until a full album came into view. He shares co-writing credits with her because her input was vital.
And what of today’s song? Well, imagine a slightly dysfunctional couple who probably share the blame for any and all problems that beset them. And that’s today’s song…
