Lodestar - Sarah Harmer

Note: If any readers desire a dictionary of musical terms, here's a link.

Sarah Harmer- Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
Luther Wright- Electric Guitar
Kevin Fox- Cello
Benjamin Perosin- Trumpet
Maury Lafoy- Upright Bass
Damon Richardson- Drums

Lodestar is track 5 on Sarah Harmer’s You Were Here album of 2000. The highlights of this song for me are the ever-expanding texture and the lyrics.

First, the term lodestar can refer to either a point in the night sky used for orientation (also called North Star, part of Polaris) or to an example or idea to align one’s self with. To enhance your experience of this song, I would also recommend reading the D.H. Lawrence poem, New Year’s Eve, which Harmer used small pieces and ideas from for some of the lyrics. Click here to see the poem.

The intro and opening verse consist only of Sarah’s voice and her acoustic guitar. These are the only two instruments you hear for the first 50 seconds of the song. They set up the relaxed mood. The guitar’s easy, buoyant coverage of the chords calls to mind the image and feel of a rowboat’s gentle, lilting movement through the water. Just before the second verse (“Your hand won’t write…”), we have the addition of Wright’s “dreamy” electric guitar (see album liner notes), as well as a short breathy cello line from Harmer’s fellow Canadian Kevin Fox that is a hint of the wonderful things to come. After the second verse starts, we have punctuation from the pizzicato cello and upright bass. This transitions into sustained sounds from the strings, underlining the lyrics “and your boat will go by starlight alone…” and onward. Below the guitars’ continued presence, this new smoothness coming from the strings’ rich resonance creates the illusion that this boat’s voyage is now well on its way, forsaking the slightly choppier original rowing image for this new gliding motion. Perhaps now that the boat’s transport seems more taken care of, the passengers can begin to concentrate on other things, such as the night around them and the sentiment inside them.

The third verse (“Out of the night…”) gently introduces Perosin’s trumpet, whose timbre seems to suit the song flawlessly. Cello continues to bow, while bass pizzes a little before returning to arco (bowing) at about the same point in this verse as the last one. Having listened often to three of Sarah’s albums, she seems to be quite fond of employing the tritone and major seventh of chords (and as heard in this song, ninths) in her vocal lines, not necessarily to create a dissonant feeling, but to keep the song moving forward by leaving ends of lines open, thoughtful and lifted. A specific example is Pendulums, the first track from the All of Our Names album. In Lodestar, listen for her tritones just after 2 minutes and 45 seconds: (“we are away…in the great black night…”)

At about 3 minutes, 8 seconds, this is where I feel the song really starts to step into a higher level of anticipation. The acoustic gets us geared up with its departure from fingerpicking in to strumming on eighth notes, and the trumpet over top starts to build tension. And then, pow! We have the voice, drums, bowed bass in the left speaker on the downbeats, and bowed cello in the right on the upbeats/offbeats.

“Wait for it
there are only two things now
this great black night
and this fireglow”

The voice is using the ninths to a definite advantage, with a triumphant feel. Trumpet also colours the ends of certain vocal lines. Just before the 4 minute mark, we burst out with even more glorious sound, double tracking the vocals, cello and upright bass. The strings are given a moving line together, while the vocal harmony is rhythmically in sync with the lead. The horn continues to bring vivid expression throughout. From 4 minutes and 30 seconds onward, the high-hat gradually becomes looser and less inhibited, helping the euphoric mood continue to increase to the climax:“listen! The darkness rings…take off your things…” The drums reach their goal with a jubilant crash at the final “listen!” and the only instruments remaining for the concluding line (save a last word from the bass drum) are the lead vocal, cello and bass.

The song’s full length is about 5 and ½ minutes. It really uses that whole duration to develop its layering of sound and its mood in what I consider an extremely successful manner. When I was first getting to know this album, I interpreted this song to be about two people experiencing romantic beginnings and the beauty of nature, trying to let their guards down and let in the possibilities around them. The lyrics seem to personify the great black night and the fireglow as being two powerfully present entities that are pulling these two people together, and encouraging them to listen to their instincts and take hold of the moments in front of them, letting go of any trepidation. The mention of “no lodestar in sight” I would take to mean that these two people have no pre-conceived expectation of what this night or this relationship will bring. They don’t have a set idea of where it must go, or any feeling of obligation that could be tying them down, regarding what is expected of them—as individuals, or in a relationship. They are trying to go in with an open mind and see what good things can come out of these moments together. I think my interpretation of the song takes the angle of a three-faceted encounter—the emotional, spiritual, and physical, with “take off your things” meaning more than just “ditch the clothes!!”, but referring to the removal of inhibition and emotional guards. Of course, I’m not certain what D.H. Lawrence intended with those words in his poem (see link above) but my guess is that if he wrote a poem about it, then he was not just describing the physical aspect of an experience, but was perhaps including the emotional and spiritual essences in his inspirations.