The last time Folk Radio UK featured L.A. singer-songwriter James Houlahan was in 2018, for a single from his fourth album The Wheel Still in Spin. A lot has happened in those intervening years which have strongly shaped his new album, Ordinary Eye.
Experiencing a deeply divided America, Houlahan felt compelled to document this unprecedented era in the history of the country and the planet. “It’s such a crazy time,” Houlahan says. “The world is on fire. I wanted to write music that bore witness to what was happening—not only in the world around me but in my head, too. It’s an album about looking around, seeing what’s happening, witnessing the present.”
Watch his new video for the Neil Young-inspired “As It Is” with stacked harmonies, brushed percussion and other cinematic flourishes. It perfectly represents the album themes and aesthetic, and the video (footage from the extensive Prelinger Archives) is set to gorgeous time-lapse visuals of tiny seeds transforming into plants that ultimately flower, as Houlahan offers up a hushed plea for clarity and acceptance… “a simple dream of love for everything.”