Written by Richie Oliver
Every once in a while, new artists emerge with tones reminiscent of the classic singer-songwriters. Christian Sparacio’s acoustic version of his song “About Time” invokes Jim Croce, John Prine, and James Taylor, making “stuck-in-the-past” music lovers everywhere smile.
Called a “Porch Session” by Sparacio, this song is a collaboration between himself and telco, a Pennsylvania acoustic musician, who joins in on harmony and backing vocals. The finger-picked guitar/whistle combo sees the duo channeling Prine, while the addition of the cajon behind the picked guitar adds just the right amount of percussion, keeping the track poignant, yet easy enough to listen to at any time of day.
Lyrically, this song is just beautiful. The chorus tells so much in such a small amount of words and is super easy for listeners to connect to.
Sparacio doesn’t need to explain his emotions or use complicated metaphors to express his feelings. He just tells it like it is, and that’s a refreshing change of pace in the new sea of modern singer-songwriters.
Jim Croce particularly comes to mind when this style of writing is used. In the second part of the chorus of his song “Operator (That’s Not The Way it Feels)”, he sings, "I've overcome the blow, I've learned to take it well / I only wish my words could just convince myself / That it just wasn't real but that's not the way it feels."
This feeling that Croce is invoking is a direct comparison to the chorus of “About Time.” Here, Sparacio states, "I'm thinking about time / How I can't make it rewind / So I'll sit right here with you / And breathe a little bit more quietly / Not wonder about where we're going / But where we are right now."
Both Croce and Sparacio have this feeling of wanting something that cannot be changed, words in Croce's case and time in Sparacio's. This wanting to change the unchangeable is a theme that is heavily explored in music, and I think Sparacio does it beautifully, complete with atmospheric backing vocals and harmonies from telco.
The porch session of "About Time" by Christian Sparacio and telco is available to stream wherever music is found, and you can support the artists by following them on Twitter @SparacioMusic and @Telco_Music, as well as picking up some merch on either Sparacio or telco's websites. Let us know what you thought of the track by tweeting us @lgndsoftmrw!