<div>Musings on the modern epidemic of narcissism in “deadpan, witty poems that flash with plangent images and macabre moments” (Minneapolis Star Tribune). “THE EARTH BROKE OPEN CAUSE WE BROKE IT OPEN,” blares the first line of this enrapturing debut collection mapping the myth of Narcissus and Echo and the Iron Range roots of Bob Dylan onto a world growing increasingly self-obsessed. Against the backdrop of the mining town of Hibbing, Minnesota, Brian Laidlaw examines the ways narcissism has flooded culture. Much like a “hawk has a horizontal sweet spot on its retina / for spotting prey on the prairie,” the speaker of these poems “has a narcissus / shaped sweet spot / all the better to spot himself.” The volume comes combined with a brand new LP from Laidlaw produced by Brett Bullion, co-arranged by Hibbing native Danny Vitali, and featuring members of The Pines and Halloween, Alaska. Expanding on the themes addressed in The Stuntman, the album provides listeners an innovative multimedia experience. “[A] gorgeous debut.” —Chris Martin</div>

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The Stuntman

<div>The author of The Stuntman melds myths ancient and contemporary among the raspberries, wolves, and taconite mines of Minnesota&rsquo;s Iron Range. Songwriter and poet Brian Laidlaw follows up The Stuntman with another collection that fuses the stories of two fabled couples: the mythical Narcissus and Echo, and Bob Dylan and Echo Star Helstrom, subject of the song &ldquo;Girl from the North Country.&rdquo; But where The Stuntman focused on Narcissus, The Mirrormaker takes its primary inspiration from Echo, drawing on ecocritical readings of American history and interrogating the masculine logic of resource extraction. In these poems, Laidlaw explores themes of history and celebrity, love and longing, myth and meaning, in a landscape both ravaged and redemptive. He pits romantic obsession against self-obsession&mdash;&rdquo;The first time I saw the moon / I thought it was my idea&rdquo; &mdash;and asks whether a meaningful distinction can ever be drawn between the two. These themes are explored further in a companion song suite, written by Laidlaw and recorded with a longtime collaborator from the Iron Range, that accompanies this book via download. Sharp, searching, and ecstatically musical, The Mirrormaker is a genre-expanding exploration of boom and bust&mdash;in mining economies and in young love. &ldquo;Laidlaw is a futuristic country poet-singer in the other side of the century&rsquo;s mirror, where consumption, celebritifying, and commodification rule as the earth rots from the inside out . . . living proof that the bard is still with us.&rdquo; &mdash;Gillian Conoley</div>

Brian Laidlaw
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Books By Brian Laidlaw (2 Books)

The Stuntman

The Mirrormaker

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