“Collies” – Tennessee Kamanski

Fingertips

“Collies” – Tennessee Kamanski

If Fingertips is in many ways an ongoing salute to quality over virality, and if I could be somehow more effective at informing the wide world of my mission, an artist like Tennessee Kamanski would be on my promotional poster. What carefully written and beautifully performed music she produces! Agile guitar work; an unconventional sense of melody and hook; sweet vocal presence: she’s got the goods. Me, I don’t care if someone has millions of YouTube streams; I don’t care about TikTok sensations. I care if someone writes terrific songs; I care if they perform with heart and soul. I’m on board with Tennessee Kamanski, who does both of these things.

Based in Southern California, Kamanski first came to my attention as part of the wonderful if short-lived duo Allen LeRoy Hug, whom I featured first in a review and next in a playlist, both times in 2021. With the duo disbanded, Kamanski has released two new songs since: last year’s lovely “Red Sun” and now the inscrutable and fetching “Collies.”

Launching off a graceful, cascading guitar lick, “Collies” also sports a firm backbeat, subtle melodic flair, no apparent chorus, and tantalizing lyrics that seem obviously to make sense to the songwriter while eluding explication from the casual listener’s point of view. I enjoy this type of specific-but-enigmatic lyric; it tells me I’m in good artistic hands, and encourages and rewards repeat listening. Yes there’s a passing reference in the lyrics to a border collie, but why is the song called “Collies”? What’s with the blood loss? The bag of apples? The nimble guitar lick–heard only three succinct times in the song–provides the ear with a sturdy if quirky hook, a musical anchor that gives the lyrics permission to mystify. And even as the acoustic guitar is front and center those three times, the song doesn’t present otherwise as acoustic, featuring that strong beat and a variety of instruments and production touches. I like the offhand electric guitar gurgle at 1:25, and the space-age synth flares at 1:03 and 2:07, to point to a few notable flourishes.

You can as always download “Collies” via the above link (thanks to the artist for that), but allow me to encourage you to visit Bandcamp and download the song there and support her directly; you can pay anything you’d like. While there you can also read and ponder the lyrics yourself and see what unfolds in the song for you as you follow along.