Ears Wide Open: Bootstraps
Kevin Bronson on
3
Singer-songwriter Jordan Beckett is a craftsman whose folk-pop has a filmic quality, a trait that has served the Portland, Ore., native well. Beckett, doing business under the name Bootstraps, got his break when actor/director Sam Jaeger asked him to write songs for the 2011 movie “Take Me Home;” besides the half-dozen tunes in that film, Bootstraps’ songs have found their way onto television shows such as “No Ordinary Family,” “Private Practice,” “Betrayal” and “Parenthood,” among others. Bootstraps’ self-titled album, featuring production work from Skip Saylor and Richard Dodd, was originally self-released, but it was pulled back after the band signed to Harvest Records, which now will release it Feb. 18. The evocative collection recalls a more world-weary Ray LaMontagne; in fleshing out his tunes, Beckett recruited the talents of two old college buddies familiar to followers of the L.A. scene, David Quon and Nathan Warkentin of We Barbarians. And ex-Cold War Kids drummer Matt Aveiro has now joined Bootstraps’ live band. The expansive single “Sleeping Giant” has some My Morning Jacket ambitions, so adjust your volume accordingly.
||| Stream: “Sleeping Giant”
||| Live: Bootstraps plays tonight at the Hotel Café.
Is there such a thing as a “more world weary Ray LaMontagne”?
Ha! That was exactly my thought!
[…] back in 2012, at first self-releasing a self-titled album before a major label came calling and re-released it widely in early 2014. Bootstraps’ shimmering and emotive folk-pop songs were a natural progression of the […]