Kevin Bronson on August 9th, 2017

3

Brandon McCulloch is a photographer, filmmaker, musician and steady presence on the Hollywood scene who fronts the L.A. band Folk Riot. While his band hasn’t released any music in a couple of years, McCulloch apparently has some solo material on the shelf, so on Tuesday he unveiled “Setting Sun,” with a note saying, “Something about Glen Campbell’s passing made me decide to put this out.” It’s a simple but affecting acoustic ballad, made with producer Thomas Queyja.

The song “is about looking back at your life, like looking back at a set of snapshots and remembering who you were at these various points/what you wanted, and measuring that against how it all played out,” McCulloch says. “It’s structured like the riddle of the Sphinx: the young person, the middle-aged person, the old person — and did he succeed? Did he fail? Is to reach the end and still love yourself the real win? I had fun peppering it with different mythological allusions as a sub-theme as well.”

The song is also a reminder that if ever we reach a point where acoustic ballads can’t be affecting, we’ll know our sun has set.

||| Stream: “Setting Sun”

||| Live: Brandon McCulloch does a regular Sunday solo set (7-9 p.m.) at the Sassafras Saloon.