There’s a humbling feeling about being in Vermont, especially if you’ve been conditioned to prefer the city. The most insignificant moments and images seem like grand gestures; everything combines to create these incredibly picturesque scenes. Chris Weisman writes and records his music and teaches music lessons in Brattleboro, most likely living the Vermont dream. Weisman’s “Backpack People” immediately brought me back to the green mountain state.
“Backpack People” is expansive, capturing these brief moments of the “backpack people’s” lives and stretching them into timeless utopias. “Backpack people walk a lot in the park together/Backpack people walk a lot in the park alone/Backpack people in the grass in the winter frozen.” Each verse has three lines. Weisman draws out the last word, hitting these serene cadences; it sounds like a deep exhalation. The song itself feels like one of those moments, a brief montage of walking through life of the Backpack People: “Backpack people now and then at a loss for words/Backpack people take a ride on a life of curves/But deep down backpack people never swerve.”
“Backpack People” is from Weisman’s The Holy Life That’s Coming LP, which will be available February 26 on NNA Tapes.
