“It All Goes Up” is the upcoming album from independent Americana singer-songwriter Beth Bombara, releasing Aug. 4. The album illustrates a more positive outlook on the sense of isolation from the pandemic, with Bombara’s lyrics reflecting a tone of acceptance toward misfortune and isolation.
“I think coming out of this weird collective head space and feeling really down about a lot of things, I wanted to put something out there that was more positive and upbeat feeling,” Bombara said, highlighting one of the new singles from the upcoming album, ‘Everything I Wanted.’
“It’s been a rough year, or, couple of years for people I know and me too, it’s just a struggle and I wanted to project some positivity and say, we’re all in this boat, but here’s the good, what I want to focus on.”
During the recording of the new album, Bombara employed a lot of different and new instruments, such as a 12-string guitar, which Bombara used to create shimmering textures on some of the tracks. Another new avenue that Bombara explores is her use of the classical guitar in composing many of the tracks on the album — a departure from her regular method of crafting songs.
“I wrote a lot of these songs on the classical guitar, which by default, sort of set the tone for a lot of these song,” Bombara said, illustrating how the classical guitar encourages a different playing style. “I took a different approach and found myself using different chord voicings and just doing a lot of arpeggiated fingerstyle picking.”
One song influenced by this approach is the single, “Lonely Walls,” that reflects a more melancholic view on isolation. The instrumentation on the song was made intentionally more spacious to illustrate the lonely nature of Bombara’s lyricism. The song started out life as an idea on the classical guitar, and later arranged and recorded on the electric guitar.
“I decided to put it on the electric because I felt that it translated with the style of the song,” said Bombara, explaining the element of space in the instrumentation helps drive home the theme of loneliness and isolation.
"That song in particular, that was one where I was feeling the song, the lyrics are a little melancholic," she said, "but I really wanted the instrumentation of that song to communicate that as well, and the space and dissonance all work together in the song.”
Bombara is playing at the Contemporary Arts Center of Peoria at 6:30 p.m. Friday, July 14. Tickets and event info can be found at the center's website. Pre-orders for Beth Bombara’s upcoming album, “It All Goes Up,” can be found on her website, along with other information about her.
