Local Music Reviews

Jeff Dewsnup
A poisonous tree (in the fog)
Self-published
Street: 08.10
Jeff Dewsnup = Exhausted + Elliot Smith

Jeff Dewsnup was born in Herriman, Utah. He started playing soccer at a young age. He played for La Roca FC, a youth club in Utah, and excelled there. On January 12, 2021, Dewsnup signed a professional contract with Real Salt Lake, becoming the youngest signing in the club’s history. This is not a portrait of a soccer prodigy, but an album review of Jeff Dewsnup’s first solo album. A poisonous tree (in the fog).

Following the 2022 Major League Football season, Dewsnup retired from professional football at the age of 18 to pursue music and focus on his personal mental health. Mental health is the north star of this record. Dewsnup ends the album title and each song title with (in the fog), making no secret of the fact that each song exists in the foggy cloud of depression, anxiety, and Dewsnup’s own tyrannical inner voice. Dewsnup is a brave artist who took an identity he once loved and thrived in, but which ultimately destroyed him, and made a fundamental shift toward another identity that will help and heal him.

A poisonous tree (in the fog) is obviously a very personal record. It’s a lo-fi slow-burn that moves at its own pace with subtle, grinding synth lines, keyboards and other effects. Dewsnup uses a whisper-pop vocal style defined by an emphasis on breaths and silent, sibilant consonants like P, K and T, sometimes making his vocals more of a breathy hiss that blends into the instrumentation. First, listen to A poisonous tree (in the fog) is a dreamy, hallucinatory, trippy mood that envelops you like a light blanket on a rainy summer day. However, upon second listen with the lyrics sheet in hand, A poisonous tree (in the fog) hits like a tsunami.

On the first track, “That Old Skeleton Barn (In The Fog),” Dewsnup tells the story of a barn that burned down when he was a child. “They told me that all the skeletons / came back from the dead,” Dewsnup sings, “but they burned them down / like they never lived / so this old guitar / will show you what they did.” Burning down is a metaphor for obliteration. A skeletal system is the wooden framework of a house and a skeleton is the framework of the body. This is the story Dewsnup wants to tell on this beautiful and sad record.

The track “My Last Memory (In The Fog)” speaks about Dewsnup’s personal mental health. “I see a shadow in the distance / Watching me closely / Then it starts to haunt me / I close my eyes like I always do / ‘Cause I’m still scared / I know it’s not what I’m supposed to do / I still have a purpose / But purpose brings pain / My back falls to the floor / My thoughts keep racing.”

Dewsnup turns depression into poetry and it hits like a punch to the gut. “But the shadow won’t go away,” Dewsnup continues, “And my soul dies every day / I’ll do it alone again / A thousand fans, and still I feel nothing / Nothing at all.” Dewsnup ends the track with another punch to the gut: “I wake up in the morning / And I still feel tired / I want to feel human / And show the world my love.”

The Poison Tree (in the Fog) is a record of love and bravery at an elite level, from an artist who isn’t that comfortable, but who stands there anyway – in exactly the right place where Dewsnup is, and who knows that this is where Dewsnup needs to be.

Only 1.4% of college football players are offered a professional contract. In the UK, only 180 out of 1.5 million junior footballers make it to the Premier League – a success rate of 0.012%. This shows the courage of Jeff Dewsnup. He missed an incredible opportunity to confront his mental health in a country where 40% of men never talk about it. The Poison Tree (in the Fog) will change you, consume you, and comfort you. Look for this recording. –Russ Holsten
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