EPONYMY

2020 - 2023

Cranberry bogs, a pioneering Lithuanian thereminist, flightless woodhens of New Zealand, Scotch distilleries, a bushcraft field guide from 1914. All are subjects on Timothy Monger's fourth solo album, a homespun psych-folk set that plays like an anthology of weird delights. Abandoning the introspective style of 2017's Amber Lantern, the Michigan singer/songwriter combed his notebooks for outliers, misfits, and endearing idea fragments. A cub reporter in the mold of Jimmy Olson materialized, as did the spirit of an Upper Peninsula chieftain and his lake fish. Brian Wilson's therapist/tormentor Eugene Landry morphed into a washing machine spinning out into infinity. One song was translated on a whim into French and several others told their stories in less than 20 seconds.Recording entirely at home, Monger handled the instrumentation himself, pairing fingerstyle guitar with cuatro, accordion, tin whistle, stylophone, electric piano, and various analog synths. The few parts he couldn't manage he farmed out to friends including Kalamazoo violinist Samantha Cooper, his former band Great Lakes Myth Society, and New York composer/activist Jesse Paris Smith. He referenced his own quirky tastes, giving little thought as to whether or not a Gordon Lightfoot tribute or nods to the Horse Flies and Shopping Trolley would land with anyone. He embraced the hodgepodge and nurtured these oddities into a remarkable little house of song. Joyful in its eccentricity, it's an album that celebrates literature, nature, offbeat characters, and an abiding love of the arcane. Of all his releases, it is the one more representative of Monger's own philosophy and bears only his name for a title.

Timothy Monger - Timothy Monger
Released: June 2023 / Label: Northern Detective (ND-05)

NOTE: Audio, complete album credits, song-by-song instrumental credits, and lyrics are all available at the Summer Cherry Ghosts Bandcamp Page.

EPHEMERA