Richard Stirton - 'The Grass'
Liverpool based indie folk artist Richard Stirton explores the importance of change and compromise to nurture healthy relationships on compelling single, ‘The Grass’.
South African born Richard Stirton understands how easy it can be to get caught up in negative cyclical behaviour in relationships, and the importance of growth, healing and letting go of resentment. ‘The Grass’ is a sparse and intimate song led by tranquil and emotive finger style guitar sounds. Stirton’s vocal is brooding as he delivers equally emotive and poetic storytelling in a confessional manner, as he explains, “ I wrote and recorded this track during lockdown in the UK. I think these crazy times have given us all a lot of time to look inwardly and reflect and really get perspective on both who we are or want to be as people as well as the relationships we have or want to have with others.”
’The Grass’ is a song about a relationship that has broken down over time, that sees Stirton take his listener through the story of two people “so similar yet so different, and the fight to make up for years wasted on petty conflicts. It is a plea to the other person to realise the importance of the relationship and to meet halfway. To begin the process of healing and building a relationship built on love, empathy and the mutual goal of creating a relationship that becomes as good as it can be. So that the memories, at the end of it all, are good ones.”
As the track reaches its i outro, Stirton’s vocal becomes wilder, grittier and more impassioned as he laments, “Oh my my my, don’t you want more, don’t you want more?” against a steady backdrop of affecting guitar sounds. ‘The Grass’ culminates in an intense outpouring of raw emotion that leaves its listener tousled and turned inside out.
Words of Karla Harris