Naked as rain and the animal beneath (2007) - Jake Berry - A concept album of sorts composed interwoven themes. Making use of digital recording and editing for the first time, Berry began with basic guitar and voice or piano and voice demos, added tracks with virtually ever instrument he could lay his hands on and brought in his brother Jeff Berry to add electric guitar on several tracks. Then the deconstruction began. The result is an album that retains its connections to folk, blues and alternative music, but is neither of these. The themes combine to tell of a culture perilously close to collapse. What began as a dream of prosperity and freedom after the second World War gradually became a nightmare of empire building, greed, and a culture of self-absorption. Naked as rain charts the course of the shift through character studies, songs of social upheaval and scatological disintegration. To download "Ash on the Roses" click here.