Willem James Cowan - “You Will”
Photo by Adam Knapper
Willem James Cowan from London, Ontario, has just released the upbeat and optimistic ballad “You Will (A Brief Reminder to Look Up).”
“You Will (A Brief Reminder to Look Up)” is one of those songs that make you feel as if you have stumbled into a sunlit garden from the very first note. It is reflective, warm, upbeat and an absolute delight to listen to. Musically, it reminds me of George Harrison’s “Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll).” It unfolds with a similar, gorgeous sense of sentimentality.
The considered, shimmering acoustic guitars set the tone with a breezy but tight groove. Accentuating the natural sway of the composition are the understated drums and buoyant bass lines. A pleasant vintage touch is the lap steel embellishments, and perhaps this is another element that makes me draw comparisons to Harrison. The swells and fills never feel showy or elaborate but add a real bright luminous depth.
Willem James Cowan’s intimate vocal flows with ease. It punctuates the sway of the music in all the right ways. It is quietly radiant in tone and is surrounded by inviting harmonies. After a few plays you will find it truly hard not to sing along to the performance.
Willem James Cowan took inspiration from the melodically pastoral Laurel Canyon scene of the 1960s when shaping the song: “There’s something really comforting and easy about a lot of those records and I wanted to capture that too. It’s definitely lighter and breezier than anything I’ve released before. Less wordy, maybe. I’m not usually so optimistic in my writing, so I wanted the production to reflect that.”