The Oarsman is the solo project of singer/songwriter Marcus Maloney. His delicate voice and guitar picking stretch fragilely across the five songs that make up The Oarsman’s debut release, Easel. After a failed engagement, Maloney head out on the road to clear his head, and free his heart. The resulting songs were penned on the rural roads between Pennsylvania and Illinois (with stops at points in the south), and recorded solely into his iPhone voice memo app. It’s a lo-fi recording for the modern age, and the songs speak to, as Maloney puts it, “the merits of suffering.” We talk about the recording, and hear songs from The Oarsman. Photo: WBEZ- Joe DeCeault