M. Lockwood Porter is a San Francisco Bay Area singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. ‘Sisyphus Happy’ is Porter’s fifth full-length.
The ten songs were written between 2019 and 2021. in this period he broke up then made up with his long-time partner, moved to Oklahoma then got married and moved back to California. In addition, his father passed away and Trump was nearing the end of his presidency.On top of all this,there was the pandemic to contend with. Looking on the bright side, there were plenty of things to write about!
The album title is a reference to ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’ by Albert Camus. Porter says this book ”captured so much of what I was feeling: that you’re rolling this boulder up the mountain every day, only for it to roll back down again, but somehow you find peace in that rather than seeing it as pointless.”
In the past Porter has worked with a full band but here he goes solo playing guitars, keys (piano, synths, Mellotron) and more. It is co-produced by Americana singer-songwriter and fellow Oklahoman John Moreland who contributed remotely with drums, bass, and mixing.
This set of highly personal reflections feel like diary entries set to music. For example, First Reformed documents his crises of spiritual and physical health (“It’s been a hard year.”)
The plaintive pedal steel on the opening track -Cried Through The Night - sets a melancholy tone but this is not a record of someone wallowing in self-pity. The closing song (I’d Like To Take You With Me When I Go) takes a more conciliatory position on the trials and tribulations of life and relationships : “when your fragile self just shatters, then you’re half the way to free,”
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The wistful I Went Out To Find The Answer and the rockier Craigslist Song both see him as a novice troubadour trying to inject life into a fledgling musical career and dreaming of being the next Neil Young but conceding “I don’t think Neil done it this way.”
The Whim To Walk Upstairs is a ‘what if’ song that reflects how the best laid plans can be side-tracked by pure chance. There are shades of early Simon & Garfunkel to The Dark Before The Morning, a cheery tune about overcoming self-doubt : “The feeling that my life is finally starting.”
The Kid Who Ran Away chronicles his difficult relationship with his late father while death and our own fragile mortality is covered sensitively in While We’re Here.
In Shine My Little Light the line “it only takes a slither to be seen” echoes the wise words from Leonard Cohen’s ‘Anthem’: ”there's a crack in everything that's how the light gets in.” The song encapsulates the spirit of this honest and mature album in that it illustrates how true optimism is generated by learning from lived experiences rather than relying on tired platitudes.
M.Lockwood Porter’s website
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