Based in Queens, New York City, singer-songwriter Thin Lear creates a gentle, peaceful acoustic folk sound that will be showcased on his upcoming LP Wooden Cave. Today, he’s released that album’s newest single, a gorgeously-arranged acoustic ballad called “Your Family.” The song is simple, based around a simple finger-picked guitar line and subtle organ that colors the track around the edges.

Lyrically, the song appears to have a theme of self-improvement, though the narrator appears to struggle to change. “Thought I was gonna fix myself on Sunday / Thought I was gonna fix myself today / And every week rolls by / It seems I am the same / I think I’ll take that ride I don’t know when.” As the song progresses, stringed instrumentation enters the mix, providing another element of gravity to the song.

“This song took me a while to write, and even longer to record, as I don’t think I fully understood what I was singing about when I initially wrote it,” said Thin Lear. “At the time, I had recently watched someone close to me lose their partner of many decades, and their resulting grief turned into this pattern of self-punishment and self-imposed exile. The only way they eventually broke out of it was when they started to remember the foundational love their partner had given them. When they stopped thinking about the loss, and started thinking about what they had received and imparted in return, I could sense that person returning home again. Unfortunately, there’s this self-defeating mechanism in our brains that makes us think we deserve our grief. I watched this person climb out of that, and it was such a hard-earned victory.”

In support of his new LP, which comes on the heals of a self-titled EP, Thin Lear will hit the road this summer. He’ll be playing in the Eastern United States, including a show in August at The Knitting Factory in New York City.

Thin Lear Summer 2019 Tour Dates

6/21 – Sheffield, MA – Race Brook Lodge
6/22 – Catskill, NY – HiLo Catskill
6/26 – Burlington, VT – Radio Bean
6/27 – Somerville, MA – ONCE Lounge
7/24 – Philadelphia, PA – Bourbon & Branch
8/02 – Brooklyn, NY – The Knitting Factory