The “One-track Find” theme is an expedition of sorts to unearth lost musical treasure which falls through the cracks of the beaten path and gets trampled underneath by the callous footsteps of profit-driven music merchants and an impressionable and pliant music consuming public. One-track Find features these buried and overlooked treasures for the true music makers and true music listeners one song at a time. It advances the radical idea that it’s the prophets in music (the artists) not the profits that can change the world, even if it’s only the small corner of the world in which you live. It couldn’t be simpler. All that’s required of you, is to listen with your ears, your heart, your soul, and your imagination, and let the music return you to a familiar place or confidently lead you away to a place you’ve never been before.
As always, the interpretation of the meaning of the featured song may vary between listeners and even the artist. But no one is wrong. The only thing that matters is what the song says to you and where it takes you. This is where the true value and the resonance of music resides.
There is always a place in the world and in your music library for songs which spurn studio wizardry and shamanistic software trickery that can still evoke authentic emotions in the listener. A long overdue, welcome legitimacy and bravery are inherent in songs created out of this untraditional non-commercial approach to creativity in a business driven by the economics of chart positions and record sales.
“Last Song” by Jason Webley is a song that successfully sidesteps the artificial trappings of the big business of making music. Instead, this song is born from the heart of Jason Webley and released unfettered into the wilderness to fend for itself on its own merits. It’s a more genuine and honest musical offering because of this. There’s no better way to reject commercial musical convention, intentional or not, than to write and perform a song dominated and fronted by an accordion and then to wring every last emotion from that squeeze box pressed against your heart to tell an apocalyptic tale of impending world mortality with a promise of a possible silver lining on the horizon.
“Last Song” is a hybrid mix of genres including elements of a rock ballad anthem delivered in a sincere, raspy growl which only adds to the song’s honesty. It sees the chaos and desolation of a bleak, merciless world and transcends this miserable existence with an ember of hope, or at least, naïve wishful thinking to quell the agony with the assurance that some kind of good will rise from the misery and pain of life in the end. “Last Song” is one of those rare tunes that artfully dances the line between anguish and inspiration. It closes in grand fashion at the positive end of the spectrum, culminating in a collective “We’re all in this together but we’ll get through it” non-sensical, cathartic chorus that will grab even the most tormented soul and deliver it from the rubble of despair.
Click on the video below to listen to “Last Song.”
Click on the video below to see a version of "Last Song" recorded live with orchestral accompaniment.
For more information about Jason Webley and to listen to more of his music, you can visit his website here.