If you did not know that Denison Witmer has deep Mennonites roots, listening to his latest album will clearly do it clearly.
Witmer, from Lancaster who returned home about ten years ago, has spent most of the last 30 years as a singer-songwriter. He is a longtime collaborator of Sufjan Stevens, a prolific musician whose work is so celebrated, he sparked a Broadway musical, “Illinois”. Witmer is also a carpenter, having built a studio for Aaron Dessner, founding member of the national and frequent collaborator of Taylor Swift.
But Witmer is always a humble guy from the County of Lancaster at heart. And the lessons he has learned in life are captured on his latest album, “Anything All”, a code of musical ethics that Stevens played an essential role in creation. He made his debut on Friday.
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The title of the album – also a repeated sentence in its main single, “Focus Ring” – is rooted in a spirit of donation. This is what we say to a friend in need, Witmer says: “If you need something, let me know.”
“Securing oxygen masks from others before yours is not what you have taught, but I think it may be the best way for a company to function,” explains Witmer.
Acting with kindness, finding joy in nature and connecting with neighbors are motifs through “Anything Anhot and”, an album with intentionally direct and frolicing words.
“I think the record is to learn to be generous with yourself and others, and kind, and love and try to make the world you want,” explains Witmer.
Go and go home, at home
Witmer grew up by attending the Mennonite Church Erisman, now crossing the community church, in Manheim. He spent summers as a high school working in the now closed family business, Witmers greenhouses.
As an adolescent growing in the 90s, he listened to grunge artists who dominated the time. But he also found an affinity for the singer-songwriters like Nick Drake, Jackson Browne and Carole King.
Witmer wrote and recorded his first album as a mission for a creative writing course his last year at Lycée Lancaster Mennonite. At the time, he took guitar lessons from another accomplished musician from Lancaster: don peris of the Innocence mission.
“He was sort of the person who encouraged me to record my songs first,” said Witmer about Peris. “He also learned engineering at the time. He learned to record. He had bought equipment and was like, well, if you want to try, I need to learn. So it’s a bit of how it all started. »»
While his career of writing of songs began to flower, Witmer looked at the largest cities. He spent years living outside Lancaster, mainly in Philadelphia, with stays in Seattle; Madison, Wisconsin; And New York City.
He returned to Lancaster after having become a father. Naturally, there was an adjustment period.
“I came here to kick and cries,” explains Witmer. “I know it sounds bad. But, I think that for me, I was so invested in my community and my neighborhood in Philadelphia. I didn’t necessarily want to go home.
He found the peace of mind, which helped to get back with a city that changed a lot in the time he had left. It was in a walk that he saw the wooden plane, a personalized cabinet company and home catering on West King Street. The owner, Wood Artisan Gene Shaw, was a former customer of his father, a certified accountant.
Witmer had helped friends repairing houses in Philadelphia and discovered that he was quite practical. Shaw finally took it as an apprentice, which was the catalyst of the carpentry company which pays Witmer’s bills and allows him to keep music a purely creative pursuit. He built parts for the passenger on Plum, Passerine and even Lancaster Central Market – the last time he calls a “national treasure”.
Denison Witmer de Lancaster will publish his next record, “Anything at all”, on February 14.
File
In 2020, Witmer released “American Foursquare”, an album he said concerns “reinstate the return to Lancaster” and determine his next chapter in life.
His latest record is a continuation of this story.
“” Everything at all “is to put these systems in place, to really kiss the community, to double,” explains Witmer. “Best practices on how I want to live my life, really. And also, looking at my children and as, as you get older, you look at me. You look at everything I do.
He started writing the songs that would become “anything” during the locking of Cavid-19. He did not know how to start recording, however, as he said to his friend, Stevens. Stevens gave him a means.
“He said, would you like to book a few days with me?” We can just sketch some ideas, ”explains Witmer.
The pair agreed with a few house rules, the main granting an area of non-judgment. After three days, they had a “solid sketch” of six to eight songs.
Anxious to finish the project, Witmer flew away for Seattle to finish the record. Upon his return, he couldn’t help but feel he had rushed something. He played the tracks for Stevens, who asked why Witmer tried to finish the record so quickly.
“He was like,” well, I would like to finish with you, “explains Witmer. “” I would like to see it together. “”
The project would take a break while Stevens faced an unimaginably difficult chapter of his own life. Stevens’ partner died in April 2023, and later that year, Stevens shared that he had been diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome, an autoimmune disorder that left him unable to walk during a certain time.
Music was put on the backstil when Witmer sought to support his friend.
“Each album has its own chronology,” explains Witmer. “Each project has its own calendar. I just made him exceed … I was really comfortable being in the “I don’t know” for a while. I sat on the songs and said, “It is not important at the moment”. “”
Finally, after the necessary rest and rehabilitation, Stevens was ready to return to the songs.
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Let go
“Anything of the whole” has been recorded and produced by Stevens, and fans of his music will hear this influence all over Witmer’s new album. This is the first time that Stevens has been designed and has produced an entire album for Witmer. He also appeared on two tracks, and his supporting voices are present throughout.
“I like the simplicity of the songs he wrote, how they are mainly on domestic life, family life, housekeeping, etc.”, explains Stevens in a press release. “And yet there are also a lot of spiritual and emotional perspectives. The songs have a good balance between the sacred and the banal. »»
The collaboration associates a style of skillful and direct composition of Witmer with the lush orchestral swells which characterize the best known work of Stevens.
“He sees large -scale arrangements,” says Witmer. “I am not this kind of guy. I am a guy from a small arrangement and a songwriter.
At times, it took a good amount of cowardly Witmer. Stevens’ influence is particularly powerful on “the shadow that I will never see”.
“He said:” Just so that you know, between the moment you leave and the time you come back, this song will be a completely different song “”, explains Witmer.
Witmer’s response? “Have fun.”
Although the creation of the record was a trip, all the paths seem to bring home in Pennsylvania.
“Clockmaker”, another track track, is imbued with the history of the County County clock. Witmer wrote it after linking a woman, Elizabeth, who needed help repair her wallpaper. They discussed Elizabeth’s experience building clocks. (He does not know for what company she worked.) Witmer appreciated the conversation so much that he returned the next day for a glass of lemonade on his porch.
And “older and free”, a hymn to adopt the slowdown, was written during a campsite trip to French Creek State Park.
Although no plan has yet been determined, Witmer said he hoped to play these songs during a hometown followed by a tour. But carpentry projects have its calendar reserved for an immediate future.
Now that “anything at all” – a record that has taken the panoramic road in its own creation – will soon be available, Witmer tries to let go of expectations.
He indicates two rules that he and Stevens sought to join while doing the file.
“No idea is a bad idea and don’t get attached to the results,” says Witmer. “Because you just don’t know. You cannot know what will happen, what you will like in a song, which you will not like in a song, so (it’s) trying really not to attach yourself to a result. I try to take this same mentality when it comes to freeing it too. »»
