Americana Music Magazine – Bluegrass, Roots, Folk, Blues, and Old-Time
After a long introduction to music via classical piano lessons, David Arn found himself, around age 12, being drawn instead to rock music. His ear lead him further down that path. “I had enough of a background that I could easily make the transition. I remember, even in high school, I would have classmates come up…they would hear a song on the radio and say ‘Could you figure out the chords of this song for us?’ I had an ability to play by ear so I could write it out for them…” His ear also helped him pick up and teach himself guitar. He went on to do the typical high school rock band thing, and then life’s obligations led him away from music for a time.
“So I had stopped for a long time,” David, now aged 74, says, “and then 10 years ago I put out my first album.” That was Postmodern Days. Three more would follow, the most recent being Watershed, released in September 2022. It features “A mix of soft acoustic songs written and recorded during the pandemic…about separation and isolation amid confusing emotions of the time,” (Broadway World). David’s style encompasses folk and soft rock within a solid Americana framework. He is known for his deeply thoughtful lyrics, as well.
“That’s what really gave birth to Watershed,” David recalls, “I just started exploring some themes that were more personal. And at the end of the road on that, I almost was not going to put it out. When we started recovering from Covid, and I sat back and looked at the songs, I said, ‘Nobody is gonna want to hear these songs.’ Because they might be a little bit too personal.” He says about the very serious title song, which deals with PTSD, “It’s not a song you can really dance to…”
David has also leveraged the powerful imagery of his lyrics to meld his music with a number of notable videos, which have been screened at film festivals and even won some awards, such as the song, “Losing Track of Kimberly.”
By Dan Walsh