Understanding Land is the first solo release by Jerry David DeCicca, a producer and the former guitarist and singer of The Black Swans. He recorded the framework of these songs on guitar and vocals on his own before sending the tapes to a dozen collaborators, including Will Oldham, Kelley Deal, Eve Searls, Andy Hamill, and Muscle Shoals legend Spooner Oldham, who plays Wurlitzer on three tracks. The songs are spare and atmospheric. There's ample room for the vocals to breathe among the guitars, strings, light percussion, pedal steel, bass, and keyboards. In a laconic, soulful voice, DeCicca sings of storms, fallen trees, buds on the verge of blooming, and other landscape metaphors. Ranging from gentle folk to dreamy pop, the songs are somber yet ultimately hopeful, as beautifully expressed in "Colors in the Sky." Slowly building to its own organic groove, the album finishes with the optimistic "Bloom Again," a moving rumination on the nature of loss and the growth that comes with the experience.