Joe Bourdet – Silk Robe, Garden Flowers

Sitting here in my silk (well, polyester but silky-feeling) robe, I couldn’t be more thrilled to share new music from Joe Bourdet. His 2021 solo debut Meadow Rock remains an all-time favorite. Where many have tried, few have succeeded as vociferously as Bourdet to capture the essence of early 70s canyon country rock- both in sound, vibes and technologically. “Silk Robe, Garden Flowers” continues that trajectory, a Topanga haze continuing Bourdet’s endless Californiana sonic journey.

The song is co-written with Alana Amram, who also co-wrote “Lost Along the Way” from Meadow Rock. The sound pays tribute to Rick Roberts era Burrito Brothers, and features Catfish Gallagher on pedal steel and Will Scott on drums.

A fleeting, dreamlike experience in a garden, wandering in the morning after a fresh rain, the smell of wet flagstones, this is the setting for Silk Robe, Garden Flowers, a song about inevitable change, loss, and a relationship grown estranged.  As the deluge of spring and its flowers give way to the heat of another California summer, delicate gardens, left untended, become overgrown and wild with brambles. In this song, we find that the protagonist’s companion has changed, much like the garden they wander through. The chorus is dominated by an existential question; in the striving for more, did we lose what we had? It concludes with certainty, yes, “something” is indeed gone.  Still, the driving rhythm of the song propels us forward, signifying movement, and as this scene fades into the distance, we are afforded only a quick glance back as if through a rearview mirror.  Life rolls on, garden flowers wither, and, as the protagonist of the song realizes, “love’s turned to brambles, growin’ wild”.

Photo by Leigh Miller
Artwork Design/Layout by Justin Hawkins