Ball of Wax 58 Songs: Joseph Allen Beltram – “Winter’s Early Light”

Joseph Allen Beltram‘s “Winter’s Early Light” ticks a lot of boxes for me. It’s slow and languorous, built around a splendidly droney, finger-picked acoustic guitar part and Beltram’s voice, his delivery earnest but never cloying. This song, capturing a moment limned in the cold, beautiful light of winter – is so simple, so minimal, with enough open space inside it to drive a sleigh through, and yet so very rich and dense with beauty and feeling. I swear, something about the instrumental sections (where a little bit of something percussive and melodic peeks its head out oh so gently) is so painfully gorgeous* it just about takes my breath away. “Winter’s Early Light” is from an album currently in progress, which can’t get here soon enough as far as I’m concerned.

*Note to my fellow music writers (with a hat tip to my friend Sean Jewell): we’re not saying “achingly beautiful” any more. It’s all used up.