Bobby Odle, a Seattle based singer-songwriter performing under the moniker Townsend’s Solitaire, is a classically trained percussionist turned folk musician.
Whilst living in Ashland, Oregon, faced with completing a master’s degree in percussion performance, as well as a worldwide pandemic, Townsend’s Solitaire turned his creative eye towards poetry and songwriting. Drawing heavy influence from artists like The Tallest Man on Earth, Adrianne Lenker, Bright Eyes, and Sufjan Stevens – Townsend’s Solitaire prioritizes and treasures genuinity above all else. His music is primarily fingerstyle acoustic guitar paired with a single vocal line singing lyrics addressing common anxieties, loss, and a love for life in this world – all the while drenched in a somber melancholy and nostalgia. His ensemble has mixtures of cello, violin, flute, clarinet, and piano.
Glad To Be Alive is the very first full-length album that we have written. In this album, we explore 2 stigmatized topics that are important to me to speak about—grief & suicidal ideation—through real, raw, and honest stories of my life in song.
Fans and friends of ours that come to our live shows are used to hearing my stories of grief, as I regularly speak at length about my older brother Chris, who we lost to cancer when I was 13—a story that I sing about in our song "Dear Chris".
But in 2023, I unfortunately walked through brand-new grief—both in my family and in my friends. In February, we lost my uncle/mom's older brother, Agung, who lived in Bali, Indonesia where my mother was born. We also lost a dear old childhood best friend of mine, Tanner James, to himself. Tanner's family and mine were very close–our older brothers were friends, as were our younger sisters. In fact, me, Tanner, my older brother Chris, and Tanner's older brother all started our first band together in elementary school. My little sister and I also learned of the passing of a re-homed parrot of ours that we raised and cared for together who was named Quinn. My mother, my 2 sisters, and I spent a few weeks of March in Bali for the funeral of our uncle. All of this launched me into what would turn into an extremely grief-stricken, yet formative, year of deep loss, love, and growth.
The grief of losing a childhood best friend to suicide, an uncle, and an older brother to cancer all live in different parts of heart, my life, and my family—but they all interact, so to speak, in my subconscious. All of this, plus heartache and new love, through the lens of a bipolar songwriter who struggles with suicidal ideation is what this album, Glad To Be Alive, is about. I will be presenting this work as a soloist with accompanying projected visuals & an ambient back track.