Jason Hawk Harris tangles his present with the past. “Jordan and the Nile” teeters on the abyss while capturing glimmers of sun. With the song, leading off a new LP titled Thin Places, Harris attempts to make sense of death and memories, particularly as they relate to his late mother and other integral figures in his life. “And now the devil’s trying to get me too / He might kill me but I’ll make it through,” he sings, fully confronting and accepting his own mortality. “I’m gonna look for that river ’til I can’t no more / ’Til I see my mama standing on the farther shore.” Harris brushes the melody with a supple vocal, cracking open the emotion like a ship’s bow breaking a water’s crystalline surface. It’s a sterling performance that continues to prove Harris is one of today’s finest storytellers.
Listen to “Jordan and the Nile” below.