Laurentia by Adam Kirsch

Laurentia. Composed and recorded 2022, Northern Minnesota


1. Let Yourself Go Unto Heaven. To me this was always a welcoming, “Hey! How ya doin?” kind of piece - to a new year, to new thoughts on music, to a lot of things . Early on this was a meditation on the shores of the big lake, but later grew into a still larger picture of the joy in noticing. The slower, the better.
6 string guitar, CGCEBE, partial capo 4
Bb clarinet

2. Laurentia. A billions year-old landmass that’s been through some changes and seen some stuff. I’ve been on it for a blip in time but it’s more or less all I know. This started simply as a group of songs that came from a fascination with geology and geography and trying to paint pictures in geologic time scale. But people time does its work and you can’t be away for too long. Maybe these songs became a stand-in for Everything - past, present, future. An abbreviated history of time. Maybe it’s the only song I’ve ever played or ever will play.
12 string guitar, CGCD#GC
lap steel
electric guitar

3. Fresh Water In Your Bones. I read a story about a family from Russia that built a boat and set out to circumnavigate the globe. They ended up in the Duluth harbor and had to pause their journey for a global pandemic. Before continuing onward after sometime, in the news article I was reading the father of the family praised the kindness of the community of strangers that housed them and helped them during their time on the north shore. He figured that living right next to so much fresh water, it finds its way inside of you. An ode to kindness, wherever it comes from.
6 string guitar, CGCEBE

4. Peatland/Hovland.
5 string banjo, fCFAF

5. Not For Lack Of Trying. Best of intentions, don’t worry about it too much.
6 string guitar, CGCEBE, partial capo 4

6. The Lobster By Electric Light. The comfort of friends, no matter how different they may be.
5 string banjo, fCFAF
Bb clarinet
lap steel

7. Leave My Body On Pickle Mountain. The simple pleasures of home and of small-scale agriculture. Winter dreams of spring.
6 string guitar, CGCEBE
electric guitar

8. The Farquhar Knob. A portrait of a particularly nice day spent in the forest.
6 string guitar, CGCEBE, partial capo 4

9. Aeolian Process. Cleverly composed in the Greek mode of the same name. Some time spent thinking about wind erosion… and maybe being a more interesting person.
12 string guitar, CGCD#GC

10. On A Passing. To EEP.
6 string guitar, CGCEBE
Bb clarinet

11. Put Your Rider Aground. Sometimes you have to buck and rear and roll around to finally lose them.
12 string guitar, CGCEGC

12. My Man Is An Eagle. To the infinite, the same drop of water, all that jazz.
5 string banjo, fCFAF
Bb clarinet
electric guitar



Adam Kirsch
Dec. 31st 2022
Grand Marais

Sights and sounds. Time and space.
The slower, the better.

akirsch.com