Day For Nights is a collaboration between guitarist, bassist, and vocalist Zak Boerger (most recently performing and recording as These Wonderful Evils) and long-time music writer and poet Karen Schoemer. The two friends invited a handful of their exceptionally talented comrades along for the ride and emerged with a very unique and engaging album. Full disclosure: A couple decades ago, Mr. Boerger and I played together in a band called St. Jude’s Day, and while that might well predispose me to enjoying this record immensely, it also gives me some insight into what was happening behind the music that adds additional meaning and gravity to the songs.

But first, let’s get into the musical foundation of this self-titled record. The songs themselves center around Boerger’s individualistic guitar-playing, a mix of finger-picking and rhythmic accents that can be both bucolic and jagged, the tunes operating outside the typical verse-chorus-verse template, but with motifs circling, shifting, and building as the songs progress. Wrapped around the bones of the songs is the poetry of Karen Schoemer, who recites and incants, her words urgent yet cryptic, revealing their meaning—or, more properly, creating their meaning—over repeated listens. The accompanying musicians, who include Dan Bitney of Tortoise on drums, Neil Hoffman and Dan Sullivan on guitars, Benjamin de Kock on double bass, and Mike Watt of minutemen/fIREHOSE/Stooges/et al. on electric bass, are more than up to the task of following the music wherever it may lead.

“Cygnus Airlines” starts things off (emphatically, in fact, as the first words are “off we go”) with a short couple minutes of spiraling acoustic guitar and resonant double bass as Schoemer unhurriedly paints verbal pictures. An atmospheric electric guitar chimes overhead before the quick finish. Then the full band kicks in with “Door Layers (Mirror Ointments),” an almost Fairport Convention-esque pastoral with Bitney’s drumming propelling things forward as Boerger builds off a spidery riff. “_o___n” is more spare, a warm, rhythmic guitar pattern atop the thrum of double bass with Schoemer conveying both anxiety and acceptance as occasional shards of electric guitar provide counterpoint to her words.

“Calendar Pilgrims” follows on seamlessly, drums now tumbling gently as double bass adds an earthy, grounding texture, giving Boerger a foundation from which to spin more intricate guitar figures as Schoemer worries her words, rolling them around like stones, the impressions and associations coming fast and thick. Despite the sometimes esoteric atmosphere, there is a real concreteness to this music, as exemplified by “Panda On,” which spends its first moments somewhere up in the air, only to come quickly back down to earth with plangent guitar and the shuffle of drums, a martial beat moving all participants toward final resolution.

Fuzzy electric guitar announces “Spider Offshoot” with Boerger and Schoemer trading lines that are both earnest and questioning, possibly a portrait of domestic discomfort, but you are free to choose your own adventure. Watt’s bass burbles up through toms and cymbals and the circular guitar pattern curls around and around before things straighten out, the drums and bass picking up momentum and speed, as Boerger shifts into a lengthy cascade of notes that reaches for the horizon. At over 10 minutes, this may be the centerpiece of the album, combining all the elements introduced on the record to this point.

After the rumble of “Spider Offshoot,” “Two Related” ends things gently, somewhere close to where they began, Boerger picking out bluesy notes and figures on his acoustic with some overdubs for accompaniment, perhaps a shade of Nick Drake also rapping at the window, while Schoemer conjures one last scene of relationships, both their slipperiness and necessity.

Meticulously mastered at Microphonic Mastering by Bruce Templeton, this is a wonderful sounding record. You feel as if you can hear every guitar string and cymbal decay and, importantly, all the space in between. It’s hard to compare this work to other artists, but perhaps imagine elements as disparate as Bert Jansch, Saccharine Trust, Jack Rose, and Wanda Coleman (in delivery, if not always content), amongst numerous others, whether musical or otherwise. The package is also beautiful, with a gatefold CD sleeve and text booklet featuring artwork by Boerger’s wife, Melissa Oresky. This is truly a family affair.

Finally, let me establish a bit of emotional context for this album, as it’s been recorded and released while Boerger has been in treatment for stage 4 kidney cancer and the music has helped to provide some of the energy and inspiration needed to keep at such a harrowing battle. In fact, Schoemer, feeling that the project would be healing, encouraged Boerger to proceed with it at the start of his treatment. Thus this is truly music of life, played with a desire only for the nourishing spirit of creation and the sharing of what is within us and what we are experiencing in the hope that it connects us—and keeps us connected—to others, especially in the face of mortal uncertainty. In other words, this is art in its purest form. And you can never have enough of that.

Rating: A-

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