‘Fog On Mirror Glass’ was recently laid on me, the new hauntingly atmospheric album from Donald Beaman, touted to bring to mind the likes of Cass McCombs or even Jake Xerxes Fussell, but I’m older than that, I hear a great number of other influences.

The record is sonically low-keyed pure and simmering, like a tattoo dedicated to a long lost friend, slightly fading from years in the sun, a memory that will always bring a tear in those quiet reflective moments. If I were pressed to say who this body of work brings to mind, my first answer would be Steve Gunn, though with a bit of consideration, I’d put my hand on your shoulder and say, “He’s like Nick Drake, if Drake had managed to put a band together and breathed fuller life into his songs.”

‘Fog On Mirror Glass,’ is a very trans-continental creation, a flight from New York to the warmth of California, taking in the wholeness of this nation. All and all, it’s as if this record doesn’t actually exist, as if the notes are nothing more than a passing idea, the fog on a mirror you momentarily get lost in before wiping the mirror clean.

Jenell Kesler

Donald Beaman – ‘Fog on Mirror Glass’ (Royal Oakie Records, 2024)