Quick. What’s your first thought when you hear the word “desire?” If you were honest with yourself, it was either food, power, money, lust or, if you were in a reflective mood, you possibly thought of a deeper relationship with someone. This is why most songs, be they of the Great American Songbook, or contemporary tunes, center around lust, money and power (however, we could always do for a few songs about Tommy’s Burgers).
What makes the release by Tierney Sutton’s band (“Desire”/Telarc) unique is that while sticking to the songs and topics that we’re all familiar with, Sutton and company show that all of the passions in these songs are misdirected, and inevitably end up in disillusionment. The desire mentioned in songs like “Fever,” “Cry Me A River,” and “Long Daddy Green” are inherently unable to satisfy our ultimate cravings. As St. Augustine wrote “God, You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest with Thee.”
Sutton, a practicing member of the Bahai faith, readily agrees with this classic writing. “I love Saint Augustine’s quote, because that really is the deal. There are several passages from the writings of Baha’u’llah that are very similar, where he talks about from the same book that I quote from in the beginning and end of DESIRE.”
In this American Idol-worshipping world, where entertainment and art seem to go hand in hand with hedonistic materialism, Sutton and her band (Christian Jacob/p, Trey Henry/Kevin Axt/b, Ray Brinker/dr) understand the difficulty of combating the seemingly inherent shallowness of the industry that they find themselves involved in. In one sense, the music glamorizes our basest desires, but Sutton points out, “In another sense, the Bahai writings describe music as a ladder by which the soul ascends to heaven. The idea of the spiritual purpose of music is very much a part of my religious beliefs, but it is also a part of the philosophy of the band . When we approach making music together, there is a real reverence involved in the approach that we take. If you watch the comportment of everyone when we’re playing, yes, we have a lot of fun, and there is some lightheartedness to a certain extent, but there is also a real deep reverence that what were doing is serious business. So, in terms of the entertainment industry, there’s (a shallowness). The fact that I have to do a photo shoot next week for the cover of Berkeley Today Magazine, and I had to go out yesterday with a photographer and look at clothes…It’s kind of pleasant and can also kind of get you in a weird state of mind. The idea of materialism, which is what the record is really about, is a battle that I am familiar with. But, everyone, even if you’re not in the entertainment industry, or in the fine arts, is familiar with it.”
Sutton sees the battle between the shallow promises of money and superficial relationships with ones soul, and uses this latest release to hopefully help people realize that “We’re on this path, and to me, life is a spiritual obstacle course. If you listen to (Dave Frishberg’s) “Long Daddy Green,” who’s your heart belong to? That’s part of the whole thing. I think that lyric by Frishberg is so, so, brilliant. It hits the nail on the head. As performing artists, we have lots of insecurities. What happens to us is that we either think of ourselves as geniuses or frauds. It’s really hard to find a middle path. Either people have no use for you, and think you’re useless and terrible, or they think more of you than they really need to think. We’re doing a job, just like everyone else. We do our due diligence, and we hope that we serve. On a good day, we feel like we’re serving a purpose, and that’s terrific. But, our society doesn’t have a very balanced way of looking at those things. So, rather than finding a way to earn your living according to your calling, and serving humanity somehow, you’re supposed to be this phenomenon, and if you’re not a phenomenon, you’re a failure.”
Sutton has come to peace and terms with how the world’s definition of “success” is markedly different from hers. As St. Paul writes, “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” She remembers, “I had to sit my dad down about 3 years ago, and explain to him that I was probably never going to really be famous, and I was still really quite successful, and he had to understand that. Even though I was a performing artist, being famous was not necessarily going to be my path. But, I had a path, and I was being able to do the music that I really wanted to do, and how few people get to do that, and with people that want to do it, and mostly in very nice places, and have fans that appreciate it. In order to be in that other place that society says what success is, it is a different thing, and it’s not really related to being an artist. It’s related to other forces, some of which I understand, and many of which I don’t understand. I’m not even sure I even want that.”
“There’s striving for something musically. But, like, I want the band to make a living,and I want to feed my kid, and keep doing what I want to do, the music. But, do I really want to be one of the members of society that have paparazzi at their house? Stalkers? I know people that are in that position, and it’s a double edged sword, to be sure. So, sure, if we could sell a few more records, it would be great. If it could be a little easier when we tour, terrific. I don’t discount any of that. But, that’s not my definition of success.”
For Sutton and her bandmates, it’s not a question of striving, but what the object was they were pursuing. Sutton explains, “The word “desire” is really funny. In the Bahai writings, the word “desire” has two different contexts. One is the context of worldly desires, wanting something, and the other is the desire for the Beloved, God. There is no peace except for turning towards God, as with the St. Augustine quote. That is the truest desire that we have.”
Unfortunately, most people are drawn to the false promises of our culture. Mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal adroitly pointed out that “we are all made with a God-sized hole, and we use everything except God to fill it.” Sutton uses the songs on this release to address this issue. She points out, “I want to strive, but (the difference is) what do we strive for? Are we striving to be rich and famous in a culture that doesn’t even understand service or produce anything of real value anymore? Where kids grow up and when they’re asked their goal, it is “to be famous.” They don’t even know what they want to be famous for!”
“We are at a real weird state. So when I heard the lyric to “Long Daddy Green,” what I heard in the lyric from my experience was this siren song in the culture that is always telling a performing artist, “Oh, you’re going to be huge. You’re going to be enormous if you just do this and that. What you need is this. If you were just skinnier, or prettier, or if you just met the right person or did just the one right gig, this one thing….” And, you keep believing it; you get sucked in, although it’s been awhile since I’ve been sucked in much. Those things are constant voices.”
”You meet people, and the number of times people come up to me after a show, and they’re affiliated with this artist or that record label, and they give you that pitch. At this point, I kind of shrug. It’s like the first bridge in Long Daddy Green, “The lies he tells aren’t new to you/You’re not naïve/You know he won’t be true to you/Still you believe.” It’s so true!”
Tierney, like all of the pilgrims before her, sees these songs about relationships as a hint of something deeper, more eternal. “So, when I talk about the world as a spiritual obstacle course, the love relationship between men and women is a metaphor for wanting God, wanting reunion. We experience it with one another and that’s appropriate for us to experience that love, but that’s not the ultimate salvation of our souls. So, we look towards it, and it becomes, again, like “Long Daddy Green”. “You know he won’t be true to you/Still you believe.” It’s like the Bachelor show or something. You look at what our culture, and how difficult it is for marriages to stay together. But, the love of God is on a scale that’s way beyond that, and that’s what we’re really craving. And we look for it in all of these other places. One of the places we look for it is in relationships. And it’s not that all of these relationships are bad and negative. It’s that frequently because we are attached to (that person), and we’re not in touch with our spiritual nature, they become not entirely healthy.”
“It’s why I like having FEVER on the record, because it’s like that; we get a little sick! There’s an element of excitement to it, but when that element of attachment creeps in, you lose yourself, and it literally messes you up. Then, with “Cry Me a River” that’s the result of disillusionment; the song that proceeds it is a very pure love song. Because, what happens is, you think that the love of a human being will have the ultimate truth that the love of God has. “You’re nearer than my head to the pillow, than the wind is to the willow. I’ll be tired of you when I’m tired of Dreaming.” Now, we are only human beings. These songs that we write, what we’re looking for when we write these songs is God! So, what happens when you get disillusioned, and when that person who you’ve loved so truly sets you aside, you get “Cry Me A River.” And, the pain is so great, because you thought they were so perfect! You thought they were God, you thought you finally found it. And then, it turns out they weren’t that at all. “You nearly drove me out of my head…” How can that be? You just aren’t going to get it from a person. So you go through this spiritual obstacle course, and if your desire is not raised to its noblest nature, you’re going to have tough times.”
Closing this album of unsatisfying relationships with Johnny Mercer’s “Skylark”, Sutton chose this tune because she sees a deeper meaning in this classic, explaining, “This is a song in which Johnny Mercer, I think, absolutely, in an inspired way, channeled mystic poetry. Because, when you read Middle Eastern mystical poetry, the image of the nightingale that is singing praises of God and trying to educate people of the beauty of God…is throughout. Those poems use the nightingale as the prophetic Christ figure. So, “Skylark,” which is Jesus, “have you anything to say to me/tell me where my love can be/is there a meadow in the midst/where someone’s longing to be kissed” This song is a mystical poem.”
This commitment to God permeates through the band, and makes each member a better musician, as Sutton explains, “we talk about this all of the time, although none of the guys are Bahai. The other guys are very spiritual in their relation to life. We always pray before a show, and we have a very spiritual outlook on what we do, and there is a personal integrity that we expect from one another.” It’s when artists are committed to something or Someone greater than themselves that their craft is perfected. If you’ve seen her in concert, you know that she and her band gives their all, and this latest release illuminates why. It’s a trip worth taking.