Video Premiere: Jon Stickley Trio, “Rice Dream”
In “Rice Dream,” a tune you’ll find on the Jon Stickley Trio’s newest recording ‘Lost at Last,’ the name of the game is harmonics. Jon Stickley’s guitar harmonics and Lyndsay Pruett’s violin harmonics twine seamlessly together, creating an almost otherworldly atmosphere and the end result is a bit unnerving in its intensity.
Stickley and Pruett toss melodic themes back and forth, taking turns leading and following (check out the haunting call and response that happens around 2 minutes in), and they’re beautifully set up and pushed along by Patrick Armitage’s nonstop percussive pulse. His aggressive rhythm keeps “Rice Dream” from becoming too dreamy.
There are definitely dream-like elements in the video for “Rice Dream” – fingers that shimmer and glitter, shadows that fade in and out, unexpected bright spots and blurry shapes that you can’t quite make out. The whole experience is like waking from a dream you can’t shake off, the kind of dream that leaves you a little muddled for the rest of the day.
That’s what inspired Jon Stickley to write the tune – a dream he couldn’t shake. He woke up one morning thinking about one of his heroes, the great Tony Rice. Sitting at the table with a hot cup of coffee, bleary-eyed and trying to remember just what, exactly, the dream was all about, Stickley focused on a container of the lactose-free milk product that was right in front of his eyes. It’s called “Rice Dream” and…well, there it was. A new tune started running through his head.
Tony Rice had a (dream) hand in the concept of the “Rice Dream” video, too. Stickley was inspired (not consciously) by the album art for Tony Rice’s ‘Manzanita.’
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‘Lost at Last’ is out now and available at iTunes and Amazon.com
