Nashville-based singer/songwriter Jesse Correll has announced his forthcoming LP Inner Shibori, out on February 11, 2022, with the release of the album’s lead single and video, “An Icy Cold.” “I remember sitting in the waiting room at a doctor’s office and the opening line – ‘Seaweed, ‘round my ankle, a cork-screwed tentacle’ – scrolled through my mind. I wrote it pretty quickly in an attempt to describe cycles of resentment and misunderstanding that were tearing my relationship apart. A relationship that, at that time, I thought was fine,” Correll told PopWrapped, who called the track a “lyrical oceanic dreamscape, one that became a metaphor for Correll’s subconscious becoming aware of a troubling situation before his mind or body did.”
The track’s accompanying video was directed, filmed, and edited by Anana Kaye and Irakli Gabriel of Duende Vision Productions, and choreographed by Rebecca Steinberg, in collaboration with the featured dancers. “The song is about destructive cycles that can happen in relationships; when I was working with the Anana, Irakli, and Rebecca, the question came up early on regarding whom we should cast: one couple? Male/Female? Did it matter? The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to be clear that this song is about love, and what happens in all relationships,” Correll continued. “The song took on a deeper meaning for me – making it more clearly about what we can take from any one relationship to the next.”
Shibori is a traditional Japanese resist-dyeing technique wherein a pattern is made by binding, folding, or compressing a natural fabric, dyeing it, and then releasing the bind and pressure to reveal its pattern. When the fabric is returned to its flat form after dyeing, the design that emerges is the result of the bound and tied three-dimensional shape. The cloth sensitively records both the form and the pressure; the “memory” of the tied shape remains imprinted in the cloth.
“The technique spoke to me. We endure a lifelong process of unfolding, unbinding, unstitching, and unblocking. Little by little, we see that what we thought were stains, are intricate patterns; the design of unseen hands,” Correll shares. He explores this parable on his latest album, Inner Shibori, a timeless and elegantly expressive record that feels like a singer-songwriter album draped in torch-song finery.
Inner Shibori, produced by Correll and Anne McCue, is his fourth record since 1994, and his second release after a 15-year hiatus from music. Oozing luxury and longing, the album brims with sophisticated and tastefully sentimental songs, its smooth musicianship recalls the lonely balladeering of Frank Sinatra and Chet Baker – the type of recordings made at Capitol Studios in Hollywood during the 1950s and 1960s. The songs are also interwoven with threads of Americana, R&B, soul, and folk, recalling contemporary artists such as Ray LaMontagne, Jacob Collier, and Madison Cunningham.
Correll’s last release, 2015’s Held Momentarily, was an intimately soulful bedroom production that captured the joys of romantic and personal reclamation – this included a new love relationship and returning to music. A Berklee graduate and a lifelong musician, Correll was based in New York, then followed his muse to Music City, where he blossomed as a songwriter, a member of the Nashville music community, and a popular podcaster. In parallel, Correll and his lady were two marriage-resistant lovers that decided to do the thing, but unfortunately, their seven-year union unraveled in under a year of marriage.
What seemed and felt like a bottom became a turning point of self-reflection, acceptance, and even a love rebirth. This journey became an inner Shibori experience for him, and he processes it on his album. “It was like a breakup with my former self. I had been running from old stuff – like early abandonment – and I needed to address them to move on. There is definitely a story of the greatest love ever followed by the worst pain ever,” he says.
Reflective, redemptive, and triumphant, Inner Shibori simmers with classic R&B, heavenly harmonies, and jazz-tinged soul-pop. “This album felt like a homecoming,” Correll explains. Rebirth, the record I made at the end of my Berklee years, hinted at my musical identity. I can see now that I got lost for a while, and struggled to find my way back. Held Momentarily was a turning point. I needed all of those years of being lost to be able to fully express myself as a musician; as a human being. Making this record, and finding my home in the Nashville music community, has been a peak experience that I will never forget.”
INNER SHIBORI TRACKLIST
Go Deeper
One More Time
Begin Again, Again
Life
An Icy Cold
Backyard Thursday
Fetch The Water
Inner Shibori
I’ll Just Keep Tryin’
Dusty Sweetness
Hope Like Adrenaline
Slow Accepting
Worst Of Both Worlds
