Music Review // Shane Pendergast "Candle on the Sill"

 

Through soft acoustics in an almost, almost country type of way, Shane Pendergast brings out a ballad about loss, which can mean a few different things.   There is just something pure about this song being so moderately paced and just the guitar and vocals throughout.  It's the time of song you might have heard in the 1960's or 1970's, but artists don't seem to stay on track like this these days- they always want to add something more to it.

The tone in this song is solemn.  There is a seriousness to it, and for appropriate reasons it does feel like something you might play at a funeral.  As the chorus says: "Even if I know you aren't coming back I'll keep a candle on the sill for you".   This presents the idea that the other person is gone, yes, but within the lyrics of the rest of the song you can use your own ideas and situations to relate with exactly why this person isn't coming back.

As this song is serious enough to play at a funeral, the idea of that person not coming back might be related to death.  That is truly one of those final events you don't come back from.  Putting out a candle is a nice tribute and is usually done in memoriam.   But at the same time it doesn't have to be that deep and can just be about a lover who left you and this is your acknowledgement that the relationship is over.

Regardless of how you want to relate with this song- whatever ending you're choosing- the fact is that it remains a song about the end.  This isn't your get-up-and-go in the morning type of song to get you hyped up, as it's more reflective and somber.   This song does serve as a nice tribute though for those we have lost and so it is nice to take a moment to listen to it and remember back on those who are no longer on this journey.