Miami-raised folk artist Keith Johns may be a newcomer to the industry, but his music is already starting to show the polish of a veteran. His debut artist album Grateful Fool will be released next Friday on Oct. 21 and we have the full premiere for you here a week before the official release.
The 12-track LP explores the daily struggles that people can go through with love and life, but also the good times that come with along with it.
It is a pretty cohesive effort all the way through, balancing some more upbeat songs like "Songbird" and "We're Alive" with folkier, subdued selections like "Isn't It Grand" or the album finale "Two Trees."
Grateful Fool comes from a place in Johns' life that was in flux where he shifted from one medium to the other.
"Grateful Fool serves as a loose reflection on my past few years since switching career paths from scientist to musician. After a physics degree and two years working at a laboratory, I shifted dramatically and entered this new world without the slightest clue what I was doing," explains Johns to Music Times.
Despite that scary step, he still pushed on and has recorded some excellent new music.
"And yet, despite my ignorance and clumsy first steps, potential roadblocks vanished before my eyes and, over and over, allies and opportunities emerged to assist me of their own accord. It feels like I started to roll a small snowball down a hill, and now it's picked up enough size and steam that I'm no longer fully in control of it," he continues.
"Maybe I never was. Over all, the experience has left me with a feeling of deep gratitude for being accepted as the fool I am and for what is and has already been such an incredible journey. There are other themes that bounce around the album, namely the illusion of control and the human struggle to accept one's own mortality, but gratitude is the most prevalent thread that runs through the work."
Stream the full album below before it is released next Friday, Oct. 21. Head to his website for upcoming tour dates.
