Savannah Stopover

Chris Porterfield, the mastermind behind Field Report, does not take his profession as a musician lightly; he has been deliberate in every component of building his identity, craft, and networks as a musician. One may find his name familiar in connection with Bon Iver, as he partnered with Justin Vernon among others in the former group DeYarmond Edison, where he refined his folk-rock compositions playing the pedal steel. After the band’s break-up in 2006, Porterfield seized the opportunity to begin writing music of his own. Slowly, methodically, an album began to materialize, and with the aid of Vernon at his April Base recording studio bloomed a “haunting, lyrical narrative” that exposes Porterfield’s technical expertise and a poetic introspective of a weathered soul.

It took a total of six years for the self-titled debut, released in June of 2012, to finally come to life, which surely reflects in the tracks’ cohesive and dynamic intimacy. Porterfield’s songwriting is the precedent focus of the arrangements, however is accompanied by subtle but analogously chilling folk instrumentals. The tracks offer raw, humanized personal perspectives, often parabled with historical anecdotes. “Taking Alcatraz” employs Richard Oaks, a Mohawk activist who led a Native American occupation of Alcatraz Island, to illuminate his own sense of intuition, declaring, “That a line in the sand don’t matter if you don’t care.” Fans of Ryan Adams will appreciate Porterfield’s intertwining of lyrical sensitivity and cultivated musicianship.