Bombadil returns with full, patient spirit

Story By Ben McNeely
Photos by James Nix

DURHAM, N.C. — The morning after their magical Hopscotch performance at Fletcher Opera Theater, Bombadil crammed into a corner booth at Elmo’s Diner in Durham.

Three out of the four bandmates ordered milkshakes instead of breakfast food.

After some time apart and wrestling with everything that comes with this thing called Life, whatever it is, a milkshake was more than well-deserved.

Two years ago, just as Bombadil released its sophomore album Tarpits and Canyonlands, singer-bassist Daniel Michalak developed problems with his hands.

He couldn’t dress himself, couldn’t brush his teeth and couldn’t hold a microphone, much less pick up a guitar and play. Once thought to be tendonitis, the condition became progressively painful to the point where he couldn’t play music.

At the Visualite Theatre in Charlotte, one of the last shows the band played in spring 2009, Michalak wasn’t himself. He wore braces on both arms, made half-hearted attempts to dance, but clearly was in pain.

The experience changed his life.

“I was scared, yeah,” he said. “I think I had resigned to the fact that I might not ever play again.”

Michalak said he’s better now, but not without some difficulty. He doesn’t type on keyboards, and uses his foot to work a mouse. And as far as music goes, he stays away from playing the guitar for extended periods and only plays simple chords when sitting at the piano.

“Small movements are more difficult than big movements,” Michalak explained.

Bombadil’s newest release, All That the Rain Promises, finds profundity in the small movements — the baby steps in life — which mirrored the band’s journey through the past two years.

The band’s previous release, 2009′s Tarpits, is such a complete album from beginning to end, making year-end top-10 and top-25 lists all over the place.

That album is so lovely, eloquent and plain-spoken, oscillating between being playful, bombastic, sincere, angry, painful and sentimental.

For a snapshot, check out “Honeymoon,” “Reasons,” “Marriage,” “Matthew” and “Kuala Lumpur.”

“Honeymoon” by Bombadil

It transcended maturity and all that silly talk about a band aging well. It’s impressive that someone as young as Michalak could write a song that hits at the heart of what marriage is supposed to be.

Listen to Scott Avett of The Avett Brothers, Bombadil’s older cousins on Concord-based Ramseur Records, cover of “Marriage” and you’ll see.

Tarpits was a straightforward comment on the human condition — what it means to live, to die and everything in between. It captures in broad strokes the sweet, the bitter, the mundane and the profound parts of life.

And it was heartbreaking that Bombadil couldn’t tour with their sophomore album. That Tarpits gained a solid following without a tour speaks volumes to the album’s greatness.

With Michalak’s illness and the rest of the band pushing out on their own after graduating from Duke University — Bryan Rahija in Washington, D.C. and James Phillips to Portland “for a girl,” as he said — the album was to be the band’s last one.

Or so it seemed. Really, the creative process between bandmates didn’t end.

While Michalak tried every treatment known to humanity to fix his hands — acupuncture and other organic remedies — he also used music as a therapy, playing old-time hymns on the piano to keep his fingers limber.

Though the band stopped touring together, toying with musical ideas continued.

“Even though I couldn’t play, I would still get together with Bryan or Stuart once a month, and sing,” Michalak recalled. “We would work on parts and Bryan would write the chords. I’d help Stuart with a song he was working on. With James, we tried stuff on the Internet.”

The result of “slow-motion” music-making, as Bryan called it, is All That the Rain Promises.

The title, taken from a mushroom reference guide, sets the tone for Bombadil’s third album. As Phillips said, this album is “patient,” much like the two years the band was forced to traverse before getting together in Oregon to record this album.

They gathered at the Pendarvis Farm, outside Portland, and recorded in the same barn The Decemberists used for 2011′s The King is Dead. For a few days last November, it was just the guys in the barn, making music. Phillips mixed the album, instead of bringing bringing in an outside ear.

If Tarpits was Bombadil’s statement on life’s greatest experiences — love, marriage, birth, death — All That the Rain Promises is the band’s statement on uncertainty, on regret, on stumbling awkwardly forward through the dark in the hopes of regaining sure footing.

An experience a lot of us are feeling right now.

“It’s a much simpler record,” Rahija said. “We want more of the music to come through. We want people to relate to the lyrics. At the end of the day that’s what we relate to. Sometimes we get away from that with the arrangements and costumes.”

All That the Rain Promises offers a changed Bombadil on a stage — just them, a couple of guitars and mics, a drum set and piano, and a head full of lyrics. The lush arrangements from Tarpits and the trinket instruments from the early days are gone.

Every song on the album is carefully chosen and patiently woven. Even the instrumental “Avery” offers a sweet, simple guitar melody, perfect for a walk down a long country road on a crisp autumnday.

The album opens with a hymn “I Will Wait” from Stuart Robinson, the band’s piano virtuoso, pleading for redemption and strength.

In his simple, powerful style, Robinson struggles with belief, something he said we all struggle with at some point. Robinson leaves all his meaning at the piano and on the stage, the raw emotion we all tend to feel about certain situations.

He returns later in the album with “A Question,” where he tackles that middle-school awkwardness we all feel when we run head-long into unrequited love.

The ukulele offers a light-hearted feel to a very heartfelt situation. You can’t help but feel his pain when he half-screams out, “What do I say now?!”

“Laundromat” lets Bryan Rahija rock out while folding his laundry, making eyes at the pretty girl across the way, while Michalak rides a “Unicycle” in an authentic, sentimental nod to Bombadil’s beginnings.

“Short Side of the Wall” asks all the pertinent questions: “What do you want to be/ with all that you see?/ What do you want to have/ with all that you have done?/ What do you want to do/ now that it’s through?/ For what do you long/ now that’s it is gone?”

The simplicity of All That the Rain Promises belies the frustration that comes with the challenges of life, but in the end, it’s all worth it.

Just like a pie – flour, water, sugar in an oven – the end product is just as sweet.

Bombadil celebrates the release of All That the Rain Promises Saturday, Nov. 12 at the Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro. Tickets are $12 in advance for $15 the day of the show.

Similar Posts:

• Sessions at Studio B with Bombadil
• Magic still in the jellybeans for Bombadil
• Bombadil Takes A Break From Touring
• Bombadil Shows So Many Ways To Die, And Live
• Bombadil Set To Return To Stage With Avett Brothers, Low Anthem

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