Tommy Douglas Keenan - “What Am I Living For”
Photo by Andrew Caliot
Tommy Douglas Keenan, from Winnipeg, Canada, returns to the blog with the slow-burning chamber pop track, “What Am I Living For.”
“What Am I Living For” is a track that instantly brings to mind the classic, undeniably great songs from acts like Harry Nilsson, Paul McCartney, Emitt Rhodes and Randy Newman. Not the playful, stadium rocking romps but the emotive, tender, show-stopping songs that would have been played in 1970s living rooms late at night. The record warmly crackling over a glass of wine and endless curls of cigarette smoke. A soulful ballad for the weary, vulnerable and the longing from loving someone from a distance.
The composition is centred around the honest, intimate, rounded tones of piano that dictates the emotional weight of the track. It gives just enough hopeful, gospel-like bounce to keep the song drifting too far into the sombre. Tommy Douglas Keenan injects swelling ambiance with ambient washes of synths and pedal steel. If the piano is the ‘here and now,’ the synths and pedal steel are the longing and memories that exist out of reach.
Vocally, the performance captures that specific kind of loneliness found in private late-night discovery. It carries a similar sublime, caramel rich, boyish tenor tone of Emitt Rhodes. It is a stripped back delivery but every note is lush and melodic.
“What Am I Living For” is a masterclass in authenticity, an aching reminder that the most powerful things in the universe are often the words one whispers in the dark. Connect with Tommy Douglas Keenan: Website | Facebook | Instagram | Spotify