John Bustine
John Bustine, a new-englander born and no preacher's son; a misspent youth consisting mainly of looking for a way out; and once found: a student upstate, then one of the District's finest transients, next a welfare king in San Francisco; a greyhound bus and a crippling case of the highway blues led him to Salt Lake City, where he became an instant liability to himself and all those around him. Fleeing to Boston then, where he found employment as a breakfast cook, a pastry chef's confidant, a bookseller and an engraver of trophies. After a mild nervous breakdown which occurred while attempting lipogrammatic translations of what may or may not have been 'long lost and/or suppressed religious texts, John turned again to the comforts of Washington DC and began writing songs. Drawing on traditional folk and country forhis musical backdrop, he pulled from his life experiences, turning them into fairytales written for malevolent youth. He turned to the power of the scripture not for salvation, but for both the darkness and the absurdist melodrama it offered. The resulting songs are often deceptively simple, with an entire life being summed up in two or three verses and in under ninety seconds. John Bustine: a traveler, a sage, a poet, possibly a sailor, charts a course to show the beauty within the dark side of the American Spirit.
Reviews
"Waltzes and Pleas"
On the lengthy, multi-sectioned opener "This Guitar Says I'm Drunk," John Bustine illustrates a haunting appeal that covers all manners of alt-country. This draws you into Bustine's traveling vagabond life where scripture and musical guests help etch out memories and the importance of life. Some moments are considerably more enticing, successful, and enjoyable than others in this regard; not the least of which coming from the male-female vocal combo on "Jesus, Jesus Not Again," "Outlaw's Lullaby," and the children-feeling "The Ballad of Big Snake and Mister Frog." Bustine has the foundation for alt-country dreams to come true… and maybe such enlightenment will be provide by the God he keeps talking about. - exoduster.com