Isaac Castillo’s “Someday I’ll Be” is a fast paced, fingerpicking exploration of the post-life experience. The ever-expanding journey that Isaac takes us on in under two minutes reminds me of the iconic short film “Powers of Ten.” In his afterlife, the narrator requests in verse that we offer to him an earthly grave, then a burial at sea, and finally to cast him up into the stars. Each final resting place is exponentially larger and grander than the one before it.
Isaac offers glimpses of what could be chilling scenes of decomposition, but he does not give us time to wallow. Each new death bears fruit of a new existence. Even if there was not light at the end of Isaac’s tunnel, the upbeat, up-tempo bluegrass keeps us tapping our toes and moving along our life’s journey by way of his song.
“Someday I’ll Be” does not ask the question, “To be or not to be?” According to Isaac Castillo, we are, and someday we will be something far greater than discarded bones in the ground.