Description:
Surreal, dreamlike, absurdist lyrics-as-poetry from Appalachian songwriter A.p. Harbor (Andrew Preston), weaving together concepts of love, nature, and the humdrum of everyday life, illustrated by Mary Morris.
Brief description: A.p. Harbor is the musical vehicle of Andrew Preston, writer and producer from Van Lear, Kentucky. Preston has been a featured songwriter by the International Bluegrass Music Association, lecture faculty at the Appalachian Writer's Workshop, and nominee for the 2020 Audioverse Awards. His lyrics and poetry have been published in Untelling Magazine and Discarded. With works spanning eight LPs and hundreds of performances across North America, Europe, and China, Preston and his bandmates have become mainstays of Appalachia's burgeoning indie scene. Among their hallmarks: eclectic vocals, offbeat instrumentation, and literary lyricism steeped in storytelling, all balanced by a healthy penchant for the surreal and absurd. In his other life, he sells books and coffee at The Fuzzy Duck Coffee Shop and CoffeeTree Books in Morehead, Kentucky, where he lives with his husband and two cats.
Review Quotes:
"This collection is a bubble of joy rising in a parallel universe-built from our detritus but spinning free, weird, and luminous. Each song is sticky with meaning, their whimsy and heartbreak braided into something whole. It's nursery rhyme meets celestial funk: goats, bees, men in trucks, and a drunk sense of wonder. I felt like I knew it already, like I'd dreamed it before."
--Willie Edward Taylor Carver Jr., author of Gay Poems for Red States
"A.p. Harbor's songs sound like a picture book."
--George Ella Lyon, author of Where I'm From
"The Hum of a Dreaming Moon is a spellbound hymn for the queer, the haunted, and the tender-hearted. A.p. Harbor weaves Appalachian grit, dream logic, and raw emotional clarity into a collection that feels part gospel, part ghost story, part love letter. These poems and lyrics pulse with strange beauty, brutal honesty, and a voice that is unmistakable. This is a book you feel as much as you read. It is one that stays with you."
--Amy Le Ann Richardson, author of Who You Grow Into
"I haven't heard a band performing with as much creative energy as A.p. Harbor since The Beatles were touring."
--Raymond McLain, The McLain Family Band