LISTEN: Binker Golding’s Song For His Fathers

The British jazz lion’s new solo LP, Dream Like A Dogwood Wild Boy, comes out tomorrow

June 16, 2022June 16, 2022 Ron Hart 0 Comments Binker & Moses, Binker Golding, British Jazz, Dream Like a Dogwood Wild Boy, England, Father's Day, Moses Boyd

Binker Golding Dream Like A Dogwood Wild Boy, Gearbox Records 2022

Father’s Day can bring out a real mess of emotions for those of us who might not have had the closeness and/or closure with their dads.

On “My Two Dads,” saxophonist Binker Golding–one half of the breakout British jazz duo Binker & Moses–addresses these feelings the best way he knows how: through his reeds.

The composition appears on Dream Like A Dogwood Wild Boy, Golding’s new solo album that finds him diving into his affinity for atmospheric American Heartland music with a feel not unlike guitarist Bill Frisell’s acclaimed late 90s/early 00s recordings for Nonesuch.

For Golding, it was through the channeling of his love for Bonnie Raitt, Alan Lomax and Nebraska-era Bruce Springsteen that helped him conjure up the emotions he needed to breathe life into “My Two Dads.”

AUDIO: Binker Golding “My Two Dads”

“The sensibility of the song grew out of a bunch of things I wished I’d said to my father & my step-father, but no longer can,” he tells Rock & Roll Globe. “The essence of the overall sound is one of remembering and reflection. That’s the heart and soul of it. It has a deliberately forced happy ending though. There were no happy endings for my two dads in real life, so I forced it into my music. You can’t control life, so you try to control art instead.”

Golding lost both his father and stepfather within two years of each other just recently, and this composition serves as a thoughtful, contemplative sonic salve for those who whisper “Happy Father’s Day” up to the sky.

Dream Like A Dogwood Wild Boy comes out tomorrow on Gearbox Records.