Like Leonard Cohen and early Johnny Cash meets Phosphorescent, Wharfer, a.k.a. Kyle Wall, groans and strums a spare, free-verse folk with a twinkle in its eye. The contemplative tales on his debut album as a solo artist ‘The Rattling’ cover simple acoustic guitar with piano, organ and a wand’s touch of reverb.
iPhone recording and midnights at McCarren Park create a distant, hollow feeling in Wall’s voice. The lyrics, printed with the song streams, read like self-reflective verses carried over from his years of poetry writing. It adds up to an echoing, ethereal sound enhancing the album’s phantom chain-rattling.
Wall plays his first show in Brooklyn as Wharfer tonight at the Knitting Factory. On the bill also The Middle Eight and Bear Ceuse – Bianca Seidman
We added this song to The Deli’s playlist of Best Rootsy songs by emerging NYC artists – check it out!