Jerry David DeCicca - Cardiac Country

“Dear Listener,
“I wrote and recorded ‘Cardiac Country’, my 6th solo album, just a few months before I received a diagnosis that led to open heart surgery at the Cleveland Clinic to replace my leaky aortic valve. At the time, I thought I was in the best shape of my life. Only the last song, ‘Old Hat’, was written and recorded with the knowledge of my health issue. I tracked it, solo acoustic, two weeks before my operation, just in case... You can hear me running out of air.
“I listen to these songs now and try to make sense of what my body was telling my pen and guitar, dissecting the information my brain didn’t yet know.
“I wrote these songs in my living room in Bulverde, Texas in a short quick burst over a couple weeks, wondering at the time what bound them together, while listening to a lot of Don Williams, Lee Dorsey, and Bruce Cockburn with no idea that blood regurgitated down the side of my heart. Being in my late 40’s and in good shape, I didn’t have any obvious symptoms yet. When I first starting writing songs 35 years ago, mortality was one of my favorite subjects, so when I wrote my two-minute closer, ‘Old Hat’, fearing my heart surgery like I hope to fear nothing ever again, it was a literal tip of the hat to
my old self: writing about death, once again, but with its nearness being a less abstract reality.
“The year immediately following the recording of this album was the worst
I’ve known. I’ve never been so scared before, and my father passing soon after my surgery didn’t help. I celebrated my first valve-versary (that’s what us Heart Warriors like to call it) by touring Europe with Bill Callahan and Jim White in September 2024. It helped my mood and confidence greatly. I’ve even almost started enjoying the ticking sound of my internal metronome (AKA my On-X mechanical valve). I am different in many ways now, but I can’t figure out how to describe it just yet. Maybe my next record will tell me.”
- Jerry David DeCicca

Tracklist:

Long Distance Runner
Good Ghosts
Knives
Frozen Hearts
Unlit Road
Where Does My Empathy Go?
My Friend
Dripping Man
Mourning Locket
Old Hat