North Charleston resident and songwriter Paul Bowers has a folk music recording project called The Camellias, and he’ll be releasing a new 25-track album called Words Are Fragile Vessels on October 5th. Bowers is also a freelance journalist that writes the Brutal South newsletter. He previously worked for both the Charleston City Paper and The Post and Courier.
“I wrote these songs in a marble composition notebook in the years 2009-2021, a time period that encompassed the end of my college years, the beginning of my marriage, 3 job changes, and the birth of my 3 children,” Bowers said of the new album. “I recorded them on the fly with whatever instruments, friends, and equipment I had at hand.”
“I wrote songs to vent my emotions, to tell stories, to sing in church, or just to prove to myself I could still do it,” Bowers continued. “I had no central theme in mind, but when I listen to the songs now I can hear myself aging, my kids growing up, and friends coming into my life and moving away. These songs are a rough but faithful record of my personal and spiritual development over that time period. I cleaned them up a little bit, but they still have rough edges.”
The Camellias originally consisted of Bowers (guitar and vocals), Gardner Beson (bass), and Jesse Hildreth (mandolin). The lineup on the last album was Bowers and John Thompson (drums, percussion, slide guitar, and bass). Their previous albums, all available on Bandcamp, are The Camellias (2014), Against Nostalgia (2016), and fear (2020).
Words Are Fragile Vessels will be free to stream and available as a pay-what-you-want download on Bandcamp.
Bowers (Provided)
