Gregory Alan Isakov’s ‘Dandelion Wine’

It’s late at night, crawling closer to curfew by the minute but my sister and I continue to drive in silence deeper through the tree-covered Maryland backroads. The cool, late summer air flows through the car as the song ‘Dandelion Wine’ begins to pour through the speakers. The initial guitar was almost too quiet to be heard, so we turned up the volume. The single acoustic guitar was enough to command an audience even in its simplicity but then Gregory begins- “Summer days were just a magazine.” His voice is strong yet calm, annunciating every word for the listener to hear and understand. In the chaos, in the dark, his voice wraps us like a blanket and makes us feel that everything will be okay. His words recollect the changing seasons and create the perfect pretense for the rest of the album, foreshadowing some of the songs to come and encapsulating the story being told in the album. Although this song is incredibly short and has very few lyrics, Gregory had stated in an interview that this song had been the song that took the longest to write off this album and I find this to be evident. The lyrics are unbelievably simple but poetic, one of my favorite lyrics being “Fall swooned, left me drunk in a field.” Following the first verse, the bass enters, dancing slowly through the notes of the guitar. The bass is one of the aspects of the song that make me love it so much, the incorporation of it adds a level of emotionality that cannot be conveyed with vocals alone. I picture a boat sailing on a calm night, the bass creates quiet ripples in the song that allow the vocals to build. In the third verse, the song becomes a duet as a woman joins in and harmonizes, adding another layer to the song, and creating a subtle complexity. The last lyrics finish and the instrumentals continue to build as Gregory hums over top, creating a feeling that can best be described as a sense of understanding, or a revelation. This moment of clarity crescendos and falls and we are left with the remnants of the simple guitar again, alluding to the beginning of the song as it concludes. 

My sister and I round the bend and the backroads are behind us, and we start home as the next song begins. I am left with a feeling of emptiness and realize that is the only time I can experience that song for the first time. Still, despite this, I play the song frequently, and every time I listen I am taken back to that moment in the car, and I am brought to peace. This 3-minute song composed with only four short verses moves me to tears almost every time. This song to me is what it feels like to finally see a bit of light at the end of the tunnel after being in the dark for so long. It’s the feeling of finding the surface after being held underwater, or the moment of calm after the curtains close. The incorporation of strings such as the violin and the bass are such defining aspects of his music now and the song is an amazing introduction to this. This album is such a pivotal piece in Gregory Alan Isokov’s discography as it highlights the shift in his music as he found his sound, and Dandelion Wine is the perfect song to represent the start of this shift and a new beginning for his career.