Jerry David DeCicca’s Cardiac Country is like a premonition, a diary, and a reckoning. Written and recorded just before Jerry’s unexpected heart surgery, the album throbs with eerie foresight, reflecting on mortality, loss, and the strange ways the body speaks before the mind understands.
The opener, “Long Distance Runner,” channels Haruki Murakami and the Grateful Dead, offering an unknowing affirmation of survival. Elsewhere, DeCicca mourns lost friendships (“Unlit Road,” “My Friend”), contemplates his own ephemera in “Mourning Locket,” and drowns in the wisdom of departed musicians on “Good Ghosts.”
There’s humor, too—“Dripping Man” turns existential weeping into a tuba-laced anthem, while “Where Did My Empathy Go?” wrestles with meat-eating morality. The closer, “Old Hat,” a sparse, two-minute meditation, was recorded just weeks before surgery, capturing the artist’s fear and surrender in real-time.
Tracked mostly live in San Antonio with a cast of seasoned players, Cardiac Country overflows with warmth, rawness, and reflections that are both wry and wistful. It’s an album composed in the shadow of the unknown, but in hindsight, it feels like the heart always knew the way.
Cardiac Country is set for release on April 25th.
Pre-order the record here on Bandcamp.
Leave a Reply