From the album, "New Eyes", available July 15, 2022.

RISO is:
Rebekah Rolland - Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
Matt Rolland - Harmony Vocals, Acoustic / Electric, Violin

With:
Thoger Lund - Upright Bass
lyrics

LYRICS
Early light like summer ghosts
Stealing softly through my mind
Stuccoed walls in seamless motion
Shadows of a day gone by
When the day is easy
We count the faces in the clay
Count the days between us
Consider reasons we could stay

Morning
Wake up to the wind outside your door
I wanted to hold you
I wanted to pull you a little closer to me

Turn your eyes and shut the door
When were we alone before?
All the seasons and the days
All the things that keep us waiting
It’s like running through the sand
Spilling out of broken glass
Running through your hands
Hold it there to make it last

Morning
Wake up to the wind outside your door
I wanted to hold you
I wanted to pull you a little closer to me

Morning
Wake up to the wind outside your door
I wanted to hold you
I wanted to pull you a little closer to me

Faces in the moon tonight
Catch 'em while they’re still in flight
Passing skies like skipping stones
Turn your eyes and then it’s gone
Lighter than the air
Closer when the day is done
Spinning to the edge
Hold me closer ‘til the morning
credits
released May 19, 2022
Music & Lyrics by Rebekah Sandoval Rolland © 2022 De Folk Publishing/BMI Administered by Modern Works Publishing/“A” Side Music LLC

Produced by Matt Rolland and Rebekah Rolland
Recorded by Peter Dalton Ronstadt at Jim Brady Recording Studios (Tucson, AZ)
Additional tracking by Steven Tracy at St. Cecilia Studios and Matt Rolland at CATALYST Arts Space
Mixing and Mastering by Philip Shaw Bova
Album Design and Photography by Aubreigh Brunschwig

New Eyes

Closer

For New Eyes, Arizona folk music powerhouses Matt Rolland and Rebekah Sandoval Rolland have come full circle. Their band, RISO, is the culmination of a musical lifetime spent together – and the album is a document of the ebb and flow of the last decade of their lives as students, musicians, and, more recently, parents.
 
Rolland and Bekah bring very different influences to the table despite their shared culture, and the interplay is on full display on New Eyes. Rolland’s history as a contest fiddle player in the Texas and bluegrass styles shows itself in nimble, quick melodic lines. Sandoval’s fascination with old-time music comes out in speech-driven, “crooked” rhythms and unexpected phrasing. Rolland introduced Sandoval to pop influences like the Shins and Iron and Wine; Sandoval fell in love with another band they listened to two decades ago, Crooked Still, and that affair has continued unbroken. From the Latin word for “smile” or “laughter,” RISO synthesizes that push and pull. It embraces an old-time aesthetic that seems to emanate from the very bones of the earth yet incorporates pop flourishes and sometimes complex arrangements to get the message across.
 
The album feels like the natural growth of an old tradition, flourishing into something new. Sandoval’s voice has a heartbreaking clarity and grace, traveling seamlessly between filigrees of a dreamy springtime delicacy and crescendos of strength. There is an innocence to it that makes the weight of her words hit all the stronger. Rolland’s sure hand gives rise to it, responding to every nuance and cradling the sound with sometimes surprising textures – like a 60s psychedelic guitar jangle or French horn coming through the acoustic pop. His original instrumental tunes buoy the album forward, melding influences from Celtic, old-time, and bluegrass traditions.
 
The songs will break your heart and fix it again. From the wistful “Geometric Slide” to the jaunty “Caterpillar Prince,” from the ominous and smoky “Always Running” to the budding of desire in “Closer,” these are songs of innocence and of experience (to borrow from Blake).
 
The album was engineered by Tucson stalwarts Petie Ronstadt and Steven Lee Tracy and mixed by Philip Shaw Bova (Father John Misty, Lake Street Dive, Feist).