Quieting Syrup

***STEPHEN HOWARD has, in recent years, cut his teeth as a team player, offering up his considerable talents playing bass with indie darlings DENALI and Capitol Records "droppies" AMBULETTE, and playing baritone guitar as a member of the self-proclaimed slowest band in Chicago, PINEBENDER. With the completion of QUIETING SYRUP, Howard steps out of the shadows with a solo record that is as harrowing as it is beautiful. A total of twelve songs written over a period of 12 years, it focuses almost exclusively on his health battles and subsequent emotional fallout following the ebb-and-flow cycles of affection, addiction, and ailment. It also acts as a collection of love songs put to paper during Howard's continued recovery after a lifelong struggle with various illness. The record is filled to the brim with a quiet desperation, written from Howard's hospital bed but reflectively sung from his thrift store couch. Howard's hopeful voice is one of defiance and faith and the songs offer an innocence and buoyancy, filled with the heartbroken confidence of a man who has just let go, sweetly singing himself to sleep in order to face the day again tomorrow.