Beggar’s Son in The Spirit

Josh and I were fortunate enough to get a small article in this week’s edition of The Spirit???????? ????? ???????? — the community newspaper serving Fishtown, Kensington, Port Richmond, and Northern Liberties. We’ve got a show tomorrow night (5/29) at the M Room, and will (finally) have CDs of the new album for sale.

The Beggar’s Son Offers a Wealth of Rock
by Danielle Zimmerman

The Beggar’s Son have found the musical equivalent of what professionals in the piercing business refer to as “the soft spot” – the precise location the needle must be inserted and any variation left or right leaning would totally throw the entire piercing off – between delivering the cute, catchy chorus of a pop-punk melody and the musky, lumbering wisdom of a twangy country-folk song. Singer Joshua Skinner’s vocals manage to stick to you while drummer Bryan McGee swiftly carries the music along so you don’t get caught up in just one phrase or rhyme.
What sets them apart from being just another Philly rock band is the amount of fun you can’t help but suspect they’re having when they deliver the goods up on stage, or while working together in the studio. Both members of this two-man show have separate musical priorities (Josh with his solo acoustic endeavors and Bryan with engineering duties at a local recording studio) but the Beggar’s Son has provided both with a collaborative creative outlet since their high school days. What they deliver is enjoyable for both the players and the listeners. Enjoyable in the sense that musically, it’s easy on the ears – not that the songs don’t describe some of the darker emotions of sorrow or self doubt that is shared as a collective human experience.
“My solo stuff has always been more introspective, sort of like pointing the finger at myself, while the stuff I do with Bryan is more about pointing the finger at everyone else,” explains Skinner. Lyrically, the feeling of being lost and alone in this big world is the central emotion but it’s not all pessimism. The Beggar’s Son still gives many reasons to smile courtesy of universal messages and foot stompin’ good times.
Thematically, each album has its own overarching theme that is explored from different angles in each descending song. The band’s latest effort, “Battle Hymns for the New Imperial Empire,” spins the yarn of a Civil war era soldier being sent off to the battlefield and his subsequent experiences. Unwrapped, a metaphor emerges and hits closer to home than a Civil War history lesson – a war being fought within the confines of a relationship. Much like Cursive’s Domestica (not to say that The Beggar’s Son and Cursive share the same sound, mind you), which chronicled the slow deterioration of a relationship through the often attempted, and more often failed at, concept album.
Ears that are drawn to honesty in music will certainly perk up whilst listening to The Beggar’s Son. Honesty comes from the freedom that many DIY bands are able to hold on to when they still have the ability to call the shots, and how deep they delve into their own creativity is a factor to be decided by them alone. Another key factor: the smaller the number of people involved in the process of creating music, the more focused it becomes. While creativity stretched to cover a large surface of interests can sometimes be interesting – it also has the potential of ending up less consistent.
At their Thursday night M Room premiere, the cowboys will be assisted with a stand-in bass player to help with their live performance. When it comes to music, I still agree with the expression that “less is more,” and the Beggar’s Son delivers that bare minimum from the bottom of their hearts.