Welcome to the quiet grace of Nick Drake, English singer-songwriter who suffered from major bouts of depression and died of an apparent suicide at age 26. In his all-too short life, he released three stunning albums, the final of which we present tonight. Pink Moon was released on Island Records on February 25 1972. Clocking in at just over 28 minutes, this is a quiet and near-perfect creation, featuring only Nick Drake on acoustic guitar, piano and vocals. Produced by John Wood, its arrangements are stark. The recordings are intimate, woody, close. Reverb is minimal. The result is a musical meditation that feels confessional, almost like we’re in Nick Drake’s mind or at least alone with him in his sitting room. The initial critical response was mixed. Some ignored him. Some lamented the spare arrangements. Some felt his performance appear to be shy.

Rolling Stone did write that “the beauty of Drake’s voice is its own justification. May it become familiar to us all.” But Drake received huge posthumous praise after Volkswagen used the title track in a Cabriolet advertisement. At that time, musical placements like this in a car commercial were exceedingly rare. It was a game changer for the world of advertising and a game changer for Nick Drake’s legacy. His influence can be heard in so much of today’s songwriters, from Iron and Wine to Bon Iver to Sufjan Stevens to Damien Rice and perhaps most obviously in the song “Orange Sky” by Alexi Murdoch. So sit back, or rather, lean in close and listen to he wonder of an artist whose life was full of suffering but whose music was full of hushed beauty.

Lineup

• Marshall Ruffin
• Brenda Nicole Moorer
• Timbre
• Anthony Aparo