Amidst a wave of electronic synths and amorphous pop sounds, newcomer folk artist, Joseph Vieira, digs his heels into the more modest, rustic side of music. Addressing the audience at the University of Wollongong’s Unibar, Vieira adorned the infamous stage with a wanderer spirit radiating off of him in waves – it truly is just himself and his acoustic guitar against the world. His music follows the likes of similar folksy artists, such as Honeywater, Damien Rice, Roland Faunte and Elliot Smith – understated string arrangements, gentle breezes of harmonizations and an inextricable amber-hued, dusty-like ambience that proves comforting to listeners, despite its underlying poignancy.
Vieira’s lyrics are studiously old-timey that would have listeners assume the words were coming out from a mature and hardened singer and songwriter further along in their career. The simplistic nature of his lyrics allows Vieira’s singing to speak for itself. He is calm and assured, but no less powerful for it; mastering the art of non-confessional confessions as his words, “To see you worrying is to see me honestly” echoes throughout the room.
It wouldn’t be a true apotheosis of folk artistry without dramatic, sepia-toned lines that speaks of the present through the lens of the past. The gloomy ambience is difficult to ignore, but alongside the Unibar’s unwavering strobe lights, that emit a stark contrast against the stripped rawness of Vieira’s performance, there are slivers of bittersweet sentiments that cuts through the night like bright headlights on a dark highway. Joseph Vieira’s trademark to adorn a rustic melancholy that never feels perpetually despairing, suggests that a future beyond the end of the world does, in fact, exist. Striking a balance between sorrow and hopefulness is difficult for newly seasoned artists to capture. However, Vieira’s quintessential lines, such as “I can’t promise you the stars but my heart is only yours, and that’s one promise I’ll ever keep,” demonstrates that this is a paradigm he simply excels in