Jerry David DeCicca, the Texas singer-songwriter who once helmed the artful Ohio folk group the Black Swans, has already released one album this year. He’ll soon follow up that one, the meditative and low-key Time The Teacher, with a more enlivened set called Burning Daylight DeCicca says was inspired by the urgency of heroes including Reed, Zevon, Dylan, Petty, and Springsteen. Counterintuitively — but by no means disappointingly — he’s selected one of its ballads as the lead single.

The twilit country ballad “Here With You” casts DeCicca’s plainspoken croak in a slow, steady sway. It’s a love song celebrating a commitment that endures through years of challenges, one that concludes on a note of humble gratitude: “You are still here, here with me.” Or as DeCicca himself explains it:

This is my adult power ballad on the record, a less-lusty “We’ve Got Tonight,” a less-cheesy “Up Where We Belong”. I’m not sure how many pages of a calendar get shredded in this song, but it takes place over a long and loving relationship. It’s a story of supporting someone through a period of depression, acknowledging that a bad bout in the Gulf Coast was only a bruise — faded and forgotten with time, and ends in sharing and supporting each other in a time of sadness (in this case, the death of Prince). It’s a song of connection.

Listen below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Cactus Flower”
02 “Jamila Rose”
03 “Cutting Down The Country”
04 “Here With You”
05 “Burning Daylight”
06 “Dead Man’s Shoes”
07 “I Watched You Pray”
08 “Bed Of Memories”
09 “Reach For You”
10 “Devil’s Backbone Bar”
11 “I Walked Here”

TOUR DATES:
09/28 San Antonio, TX @ Low Country- (full band show with Will Courtney)
09/29 Austin, TX @ Beerland (full band show with Greg Cartwright of Reigning Sound)
10/06 Charlottesville, VA @ Low Vintage Clothing (solo show with Adam Ostrar)

Burning Daylight is out 9/28 on Super Secret. Pre-order it here.

CREDIT: Eve Searls