The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. — Elie Wiesel

I have only one confidant, and that is the silence of night. — Søren Kierkegaard

Our hominin grandparents developed the ability to speak almost two million years ago. Their first spoken words were We need to talk. The second articulated phrase was I don’t want to talk about it. The ensuing eons have witnessed few advances in the communication capacity of partners. When it comes to sharing our feelings, we are still rubbing two sticks together.

Chazzy Lake’s ‘Not Afraid of Your Crying Eyes’ is a personal signpost in the unending struggle of our species to simply share ourselves. We slayed the saber-toothed tiger, migrated from a small pocket in eastern Africa to every point on the planet, left this sphere and drove a car around the moon. And yet we still can’t talk to each other.

‘The song was inspired through an experience in a recent relationship where my partner and I were having trouble communicating about certain insecurities and fears regarding each other,’ Chazzy wrote in an Independent Music Reviews feature. ‘The song is me trying to express that I am here to take anything for you. I’m ready to help you through whatever it is and I’m not afraid to be hurt by what you might say because of the love I have for you.’

‘Not Afraid of Your Crying Eyes’ is as timeless as the problem it portrays. Urgently folky chords open the show, anchored by a low-register lead. Chazzy channels Roy Orbison in a fantastically expressive vocal before giving way to a guitar solo that could have been drawn from any decade between yesterday and tomorrow.

Chazzy Lake is a musician and producer based in Burlington, Vermont. Today’s track marks his second appearance in these virtual pages. We previously featured ‘Solar Flare,’ from the 2018 album Goodbye V.D. Baby. Let’s re-visit ‘Solar Flare,’ a track I love for its powerful vocal and the smoldering lead, the fuse burning hot but never quite igniting the powder.

Chazzy Lake’s music is available on Bandcamp, Apple Music, Soundcloud, and Spotify. Visit his website, and be sure to follow Chazzy Lake on YouTube,  Instagram and Facebook.