Stephen Gordon

.Since he first began setting words to music ten years ago, Nashville artist Stephen Gordon has cultivated a sound that is as compelling as it is unimposing. Drawing on the work of Ryan Adams, Frank Sinatra, and Josh Ritter, his meticulous songwriting measures out subtle balances of poignancy and small talk, ideas and images, inventiveness and tradition. Gordon's 2010 EP entitled, "VA", glides effortlessly between these paired opposites, and the effect is a meaning that lingers gorgeously. With his 2009 full-length release of "I Have Seen Your Shining Spirit", Gordon's catalogue continues grow in volume and in substance. What draws music lovers to Stephen Gordon's music is perhaps not just his keen ability to reach a listener, but to reach within, as traces of our deepest humanity are to be found in every verse. It is profound, but not overt; instructive, but not didactic- "Well I found some bones by the side of the road / There's a lot to learn when they're not your own." As one writer has said of similar craftsmanship, Gordon's music not only delights- it "trains the moral imagination."