Search - Josh Clayton-Felt :: Spirit Touches Ground

Though this album is joyous and brimming with fanciful, free-floating spirituality, it may be hard for fans of Josh Clayton-Felt to hear it without a bittersweet mix of emotions. Clayton-Felt passed away after a mercifully brief battle with cancer in January, 2000, and this album--long-plagued by record company travails even during his life--is the final, compelling musical testimony of the School of Fish mainstay who turned solo artist. Cynics might foolishly dismiss its rich musicality and adventurous melodic sense as old school, but Clayton-Felt seems less interested in convincing skeptics than he is in cutting through ephemeral fashion to follow his heart. It's an album whose classic-rock sensibility evokes everything from early-'70s Motown to Lennon-McCartney, Difford-Tilbrook, and Jeff Buckley, crucially without a whiff of cheap nostalgia. The confident shuffle "Building Atlantis" and the bluesy "Invisible Tree" prove Clayton-Felt still found plenty of life in the traditional rock combo. But it's the fatalistic introspection of liltingly beautiful songs like "Too Cool for This World," "Dragon Fly," "Deer in the Headlights," and "Half Life" that may haunt listeners the longest; rarely do artistic triumph and personal tragedy become so hopelessly entwined--or rewarding. --Jerry McCulley