Photo by mikey.photograph via Field Guide - Instagram
Field Guide
Field Guide
Indie-folk artist Dylan MacDonald is the epitome of a DIY musician: Under the moniker Field Guide, he records at his home studio (and in his kitchen) in Winnipeg, Manitoba. That’s where he made at least part of Field Guide’s third full-length album, Rootin’ For Ya, building warm and dreamy yet haunting and spare songs from the ground up with drum machines, Yamaha synthesizers from the ‘80s, mesmerizing sing-speak vocals and an intense commitment to going it alone.
That said, other songs on the new album flourish with the spirit of collaboration. Bass, synths and even percussion liven up tracks like early single “Style.” Those more rousing songs should provide the perfect soundtrack to a Summerfest Saturday afternoon.
“This is the first release that I’ve recorded in its entirety,” MacDonald wrote on Instagram back in March, when he dropped the title track as a digital single. “One-third of the record was done that way, at home. Another one-third was done with my best pal and longtime collaborator Kris Ulrich alongside my absolute fav [drummer] Julian Psihogios—all live off the floor. The rest of the record was done at my old faithful Vancouver haunt, Monarch Studios.”
Rootin’ For Ya arrives two years after his moody and textured self-titled record that provided, in the words of Atwood Magazine, “an unapologetically visceral, whirlwind journey through [MacDonald’s] mind’s eye … inviting us into an inner sanctum that has known loneliness and isolation, but nevertheless burns bright with a sincere, genuine appreciation for love, intimacy, and human connection.”
Before that, 2021’s Make Peace with That introduced Field Guide as a maker of “a chimerical, dreamlike soundscape, brough to life by his soft-spoken lyrical imaginings,” as Under the Radar put it. While delicate strands connect all three albums, Rootin’ For Ya stands out as Field Guide’s most accessible work.
