Ira Lawrences Haunted Mandolin is (obviously) the project of Ira Lawrence, current Queens resident but materially a man of the world. He describes his origin as “Baltimore/Brooklyn/AustraliAmerican”, and has recently returned from a tour of The Philippines.
Ira Lawrences Haunted Mandolin was birthed after the artist inherited an electric mandolin from his estranged grandmother. Over the past year, Ira has been conceiving his impressionistic, dreamy composition on the mandolin. The resulting album’s bandcamp page proudly proclaims:
NO GUITARS
NO DRUMS
ONLY IRA LAWRENCES HAUNTED MANDOLIN
It’s unconfirmed whether the mandolin is actually haunted, but the Americana-tinged folk songs crafted by Ira Lawrence certainly sound embedded with the ghosts of eras past. It’s an electric mandolin played like an acoustic guitar, but with the spirit of a banjo and the reverb of a football stadium – deeply rooted in American folk but also somehow transcendent and worldly. He throws his voice wildly at approximations of notes, somehow slurred and articulate simultaneously. Ira Lawrences Haunted Mandolin is full of quirk and curiosity, with gentle platitudes and oddly named characters who seem to exist outside of time.
You can listen to the rest of the album on Ira Lawrence’s bandcamp.
