Treetops touched by that rolling wind
A desperate brush against your sun-kissed skin
You’ll have to refresh me—where have I been?
Good guess, lover, try again
It’s as if I planned it, it looks so trim
I gave shorter answers, I shaved my chin
The ceiling moves and the colors blend
Good guess, lover, try again
A joyous day but a sad affair
I think I’ll step out and take the air
The endorphins rush
My bones feel bare
I hear a haunting chorus
Give a callous stare
I stored the thought away and took up my pen
Wrote “good guess, lover, try again”
The tungsten bulb, the contact lens
Newton’s apple, market trends
Great inventions by willful men
Good guess, lover, try again
They’re building that building with that tiny crane
From phony stone and plastic panes
Stare long enough, you can watch it change
But for now, lover, I’ll shift my gaze
I look at your picture, squint til it bends
The eaves start rustling and I’m numb again
And no one knows where that feeling ends
We’re strangers to even what we pretend
Remember me sometimes like you knew me when
It was a good guess, lover, try again
about
There’s nowhere to hide in a trio. Playing live in such a small ensemble pushes you onto the knife’s edge of the present moment. No walls of sound for sitting behind and daydreaming, no overdubbed epiphanies; only the silence, and what you and your partners choose to fill it with until the music stops. That’s the way Winston Cook-Wilson made 'Good Guess.' The pianist-songwriter and his collaborators, upright bassist Carmen Rothwell and electric guitarist Ryan Beckley (of the experimental band Scree), recorded these eight songs across two days in Brooklyn, where all three reside. What you hear on the album is what they played that weekend, with no additional tracks or edited-together takes. The spacious compositions left the players plenty of room to improvise, and at times, 'Good Guess' seems to document an invention in progress: a snapshot of three musicians in a room, listening, trusting, walking the knife’s edge together.
But spontaneous creation is only half the story of 'Good Guess.' The other half lies in the songs themselves, which Cook-Wilson wrote during a period of personal turmoil in 2019, after the recording of 'A Life of Crime,' the acclaimed second album of literary soft rock by his band Office Culture. Like that project, 'Good Guess' addresses the strains of loving yourself and others in a society that reduces people to columns on a spreadsheet of revenues and expenses. There’s always a new boss in town, bringing “new goals for the quarter” he expects you to meet; never a moment to stop, rest, and remember the person staring back from the other side of the mirror, or the other side of the bed. But while 'A Life of Crime' unfolded across wide shots of misty cityscapes, 'Good Guess' brings the camera closer to its main character’s face, not flinching from the frenzy. Its jazzy songs tumble through fragmented chords and relationships, arriving frequently at moments of startling beauty. If there is deliverance from the alienation of modern life, it may come in the trio’s approach to the music itself: a commitment to the present moment, and to supporting each other as we work through it.
-Andy Cush
credits
released December 4, 2020
Carmen Rothwell: upright bass
Ryan Beckley: electric guitar
Winston Cook-Wilson: piano, vocals
All songs written by Winston Cook-Wilson
except #5 by Ryan Beckley, Winston Cook-Wilson, and Carmen Rothwell
All songs arranged Beckley/Cook-Wilson/Rothwell
Recorded at Mason Jar Music, Brooklyn, NY, Dec 28-30, 2019
Engineered by Nico Hedley and Ian Wayne
Mixed by Ian Wayne
Mastered by Christopher McDonald
Cover photo by Theo Cote
Creative direction by Max Heimberger
Special thanks to these people for invaluable time/resources/advice/encouragement: Carmen & Ryan, Ian, Nico, Jeremy McDonald & Mason Jar Studios, Christopher McDonald, Caitlin Pasko, Dan Knishkowy, Andrew Stocker, Ben Seretan, Sam Cantor, the Whatever's Clever family, Patrick Kelly, Charlie Kaplan, Andy Cush, Sam Sodomsky, Alena Spanger, Ryan Weiner, Quentin, and Candace.
This is a beautiful, sonically stunning record and is the perfect antidote to the depressing, troubled times we find ourselves in. Knishkowy’s finest songs immersed in layers of stunning guitar work and stellar musicianship from all involved. Clearly made with love, and filled with it. Kevin T
Chamber pop with lyrics that are alternately wry and confessional, Oropendola creates whole worlds built on purposeful keyboard melodies. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 2, 2023
Bedroom-indie intimacy meets robust folk rock on the Brooklyn quartet's sunny LP, suggested for fans of Wednesday and MJ Lenderman. Bandcamp New & Notable Nov 16, 2025