D.O.D: Driftwood Solider & The Pandemic
Driftwood Solider is a local gutter-folk duo composed of bassist Bobby Szafranski and mandolin player Owen Lyman-Schmidt. Their lyricism, themes, and harmonies brings them to a new height of musicianship as they travel the east coast playing bars and back allys. They describe their music as a bittersweet love song to an imperfect world and nothing exemplifies that better than their song “Gimmie Music”.
“Gimmie Music’ is a patchwork piece made of different stories from the Philly community during the height of the pandemic. Everything from Zoom schooling, Corona conspiracies, empty playgrounds, and rising death tolls are perfectly packaged into a heart-breaking yet catchy folk melody.
The song embodies the good, the bad, the ugly of living through an epidemic.
The last verse is hauntingly good; an ode to both the fear that we feel and the hope that entertainment, specifically music, can bring us in even the hardest of times.
Billy's old enough to know better. He says “What my daughter don't know can't upset her, but every evening as the sun's going down I walk three blocks over to the cemetery grounds. The gravestones are full of names, like the evening news, of somebody somebody else was so sad to lose. I look for my own in the fading light, I'ma live 'til I die but until that night give me music, so I can hold on”.
Check out Driftwood Soilder on Bandcamp and Spotify.
Bonus: Their cover of Wayfaring Stranger is the best. Check it out here.
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