For all of the times that I've been down to Austin and for all of the times that I've heard other people boast and brag that they were headed to Barton Springs for an all-day swim, soak and sun, I've yet to do that. I've yet to just say, "Fuck it, I'm in my jean shorts. What else do I need? Cannonball!" It's the kind of place, so it's been told, or overheard in passing, where you just go to marinate and splash. It always sounds like what the doctor ordered. You can almost taste the splash. You can almost feel yourself relaxing into it, just thinking about it.
Paul Price, the Austin musician who has previously played in the highly regarded groups Brazos and Voxtrot, makes music as Good Field that makes you feel like you've decided to take the plunge into Barton Springs for the first time. (This is how I'm thinking it's going to feel.) You've thrown your phone into the lake first. You've told no one where you were going or what you were going to be doing once you got there. You shouldn't be doing it, but you've been too stressed out for too long and you just fucking need this. You need to throw yourself into the water and let your buoyancy pull you back up to the surface, after breaking into it like a rock. Good Field music gives you permission to play hooky. It makes you take stock in the things that are okay with you, in the people who are good. Price sings, "Stay true to the one that loves you," and you think about who that is as you're flying through the warm, sun-setting air.