photo by Chloe Ekberg

review by Jacob Zlomke and Chance Solem-Pfeifer

Audio Review

Podcast Notes

00:00 — Introducing “This Guitar” by David Dondero
02:43 — Folk Music That Loosens Up … Does David Dondero Get Bored?
06:29 — Dondero is the Perfect Candidate for a Kickstarter Record
08:31 — Avoiding Folk Music Redundancy
10:18 — Why Did This Album Need to be Made?
16:07 — “Samantha’s Got a Bag of Coal” is the Ideal Christmas Song.

David Dondero’s This Guitar represents the first half of a crowd-funded double album, which includes Golden Hits Vol. 1, a retrospective of songs from 1998-2011.

This Guitar is less like a full album, less thematically bound than his earlier work such as 2005’s critically acclaimed South of the South. This Guitar is rather like 10 (11, including a reprised kind of bonus track) songs that Dondero liked but never found a proper place on previous albums.

It’s Dondero stripped down from the four-on-the-floor sound of previous releases. There’s piano on the first iteration of “This Guitar,” “New Berlin Wall” features a tuba bass line, but as the album’s title suggests, Dondero and his guitar are at the fore.

The stark orchestration reaffirms Dondero’s role as one of America’s best living folk artists. These are not rock, or even folk-rock songs. They are folk, sometimes in the tradition of Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, sometimes in the tradition of Woody Guthrie. “New Berlin Wall” is his protest song, his “This Land is Your Land.” “There’s No Tomorrow in This Song” is Dondero’s sad-bastard traveling song, populated by good friends on hard times.

The second iteration of “This Guitar,” the record’s final track, ditches the piano and closes the album with Dondero’s voice, and the voice of his guitar. It’s the guitar that, he sings, “fucking ruined my life.” It’s a bittersweet duet of Dondero’s most successful relationship, one that has kept the artist in a steady solo career for the last 15 years.

If Golden Hits Vol. 1 is an ode to those 15 years, then This Guitar is an ode to the relationship that made it all possible. The instrumentation, the rock undertones from previous work is all stripped away, revealing David Dondero’s core — his voice, and this guitar.

Listen This Guitar here.

Jacob Zlomke is Hear Nebraska’s editorial intern. His internship is almost over. Send your grievances to jacobz@hearnebraska.org.