For the Dead, for the living

Traversing through soliloquies of heartbreak and loss, one might find Misty Lyn and the Big Beautiful's debut full-length, For the Dead, to be too emotionally dense to listen to alone. Misty Lyn Bergeron's fervent and honest lyrics stir the songs to a frenzy, and the combination of pedal steel, fiddle, cello, and violin pull your heartstrings in all directions. Backed by the likes of Michigan heavy hitters Jim Roll and Matt Jones, the soundscape of the album is as deep as the poetic prowess of Bergeron. From beginning to end, the seasons carry this album's themes, as well as the cyclical nature of all things in life, such as "Summer. Lull." "The Fall," whose comparison of the season to the action of falling might seem simple, the pessism (or realism, if you will) of the lyrics, "as if it wasn't clear enough, the sun beats down and lights the broken lines within/when you start believing that the things that once existed can begin again/then all you know goes up for sale, you finally learn that things will always end and end," finds a soft spot in the hardest of hearts, a reminder of the first slap in the face that life doled out to us all. Songs like "Gathering" and "For the Dead" pump up the energy in the record without sounding too contrived or overdone. Although this record boasts no record label to back it (yet), it gives us one more shining star in the Michigan scene, possibly one of the only things keeping us from being completely obsolete.

Misty Lyn and the Big Beautiful will be on the Detroit Today show on 101.9 WDET (Detroit Public Radio), playing songs from and discussing From the Dead around 11:30am on Friday, January 9th! Tune in if you have one of those radio things. If not, you can stream the program live (or some other time) through their Web site.

Please check out their CD release show at the Magic Stick on January 10th, with Great Lakes Myth Society and The High Strung. Cost is $8, they go on first, so get there early!!! Nevermind, they are going on second.