Song Of The Day 9/2/2013: Fred Lane - "Land Of Plenty"

I was looking for stuff by the Reverend Fred Lane (and found some -- come back around Halloween), and came upon this song from somebody named just Fred Lane. Not the same person. In fact I can't find any information on who this particular Fred Lane is. I suspect he's from the UK. There's no information on him. As I write this (a full week before post date) this YouTube video has scarcely over 100 views. Fred Lane may be a complete nobody outside his home town or village. A web search for the album the YouTube still appears to advertise, As Is, yielded no results. I could not have come upon this song more accidentally.

Yet it's one of the most brilliant, cutting folk songs I've heard in a long time, so we're basically gonna go full Melanie with Fred. "Land Of Plenty" is elliptical, fragmented, progressively cynical and fatal, a crisply painted scene from an isolated urban area where people exist in silence until they implode or crash into harm. It's chopped, disconnected and terse, because how else could it be? Try listening to this song while watching recent news footage from Detroit. I bet it will make perfect sense.

Please do me a solid and listen to this. And if you happen to know who this gentleman is, I'd sure like to hear from you. Fred Lane, whoever and wherever you are, you nailed it.