Photo by Ricardo Llamas
Premiere: John Shipe spins ‘Gold into Yarn’ on stunning new ballad
The musician’s new offering pulls no punches.
For many, there comes a time when ambitions must be packed away and you soldier forward to what’s next. “A sad old man spins your gold into yarn / That’s what happens when you turn your back on your dreams,” sings John Shipe in his stunning new piano ballad. “Gold into Yarn,” premiering on B-Sides & Badlands, finds the musician weeping upon his piano keys as he turns off his dreams and trades ’em out for a different kind of life.
“If you could do it all over again, you wouldn’t be sitting here,” he continues through breathy gasps. “Asking yourself would you do it all over again.”
In combing the fabled Rumpelstiltskin children’s tale, Shipe brings sharp clarity to his own life story. “Rumpelstiltskin, that fairy tale character who spun straw into gold, visited me as I wrestled with the sadness of surrendering one’s dreams for a more practical life,” he says. “I reversed the material metaphor and cried about it at the piano.”
John Shipe weaves his emotional threads into a warm tapestry, one that’s faded with time yet still somehow carries with it the richness of life itself. There’s a darkness caked into the performance, as he strains to push through each note as though his life depends on it. In some ways, it most certainly does. And “Gold into Yarn” is his testament.
“Gold into Yarn” samples a forthcoming new album Water This Dark, out everywhere May 10.
Listen to “Gold into Yarn” below.
