Artist: Michael Plishka

CD: Spit, Sputter, Blow...

Home: Chicago, Illinois

Style: Folk

Quote: “Most of these folk songs consist of just him strumming his acoustic guitar and singing earnestly and passionately of unrequited love, soaring through time, being carried along on the wind, and seeing angels dance in the sky. His lyrics paint mythology and romance.”

There might be such a thing as reincarnation after all. I think that centuries ago, Michael Plishka was a wandering troubadour. He’s still playing his guitar and singing his poetry, but these days he lives in Chicago. I hope he turns up again centuries from now, because his beautiful music will always find an audience.

“Spit, Sputter, Blow” is Plishka’s first solo recording. Most of these folk songs consist of just him strumming his acoustic guitar and singing earnestly and passionately of unrequited love, soaring through time, being carried along on the wind, and seeing angels dance in the sky. His lyrics paint mythology and romance. From “Seven Sisters”: “Sunlit Sliver in an aqua sky, Greek God planet shines into my eye, high above immersed in char-blue sea, seven sisters looking down on me.”

Plishka throws himself completely into his stories. In “I Woke Up This Morning,” the story of frustration comes out in his rapid acoustic strumming and repetition of the line, “You don’t understand you don’t understand you don’t understand...” The frenzied strumming makes a more joyful sound on “When You Love Me,” one of the few happy love songs on the CD. Other songs, like “And the River Flows” and “Einstein’s Time,” are slow, contemplative and mystic.

One song surprised me with a concept completely different from the others. The listener takes part in the performance. On the CD, “Bernard’s Waltz” is only a minute-long, scratchy, old-fashioned recording of someone playing the harmonica. But in the liner notes, “Bernard’s Waltz” is the story of an elderly man Plishka met on a train. The listener reads the story of Bernard’s life while listening to the old recording. The experience has a bit of magic to it. It’s my favorite part of the CD.

These songs are beautiful, and I know Plishka’s audience centuries from now will agree.

Artist Website: www.michaelplishka.com