Brooks John Martin “Ocean Breathes Salty”
Americana Highways presents this premiere of Brooks John Martin’s version of the song “Ocean Breathes Salty” by Modest Mouse, which was also notably covered by Mark Kozelek. The song is from Brooks’ forthcoming album War All The Time. The album was produced, mixed, and mastered by Travis Huisman at Catamount Recording.
“Ocean Breathes Salty” is Brooks John Martin on guitars and vocals; Lilly Hiatt on vocals; Don Boyle on additional guitars; Eric Douglas on drums; and Dan “DJ” Johnson on bass.
This video was directed by Scotty Felix.
As Brooks tells us about this song, “I chose the song because I’ve always been a big Mark Kozelek fan, and this is one of my favorites. I love the guitar tuning in open C#. I imagined doing a version as a duet with some sparse drums. We found Lilly and knew she’d be a perfect fit for what I wanted to do.”
Steel guitar strings open the song and the harmonies open smoothly into a sunny, thoughtful, honest sounding duet. This version keeps presses forward rhythmically, and prompts you to contemplate mortality, sorrow, grief, regret and also, a slight touch of hope and meaning: “maybe we’ll get lucky and we’ll both grow old but I don’t know, I hope so… you wasted life, why wouldn’t you waste death.” Brooks standing at the shore with an urn while the ocean breezes blow complete the mood.
Find more details here on his https://brooksjohnmartin.com/
