Beginning with an open letter to an unborn child (“Stars and Specks”), the latest EP from singer-songwriter Zapruder Point (Cincinnati’s Dan Phillips) covers the more harrowing aspects of parenthood in short order, as the second track (“The Sprint”) sees a father driving his son to college while remembering a fateful event from years before. A pair of more traditional relationship songs follow: “Big Sister (I Never Had)” describes a bond, now faded, that fueled a love of music, and “The Shape of Ohio” briefly illuminates the doubts and certainties embedded in love itself. The EP then ends on a cautionary note, with the characters of “Coyotes / Captains” unable to resist their predatory roles. Pitched somewhere between Phosphorescent and Waxahatchee, Stars + Specks is an intimate listen, captured (mostly) live with just vocals and acoustic guitar. In it, Zapruder Point offers up songs of unsentimental nostalgia, expectation and loss, and the comforts and inevitable contusions of living in the world.

At the turn of the millennium, Dan Phillips created Zapruder Point, writing and recording under that band name for over 15 years in Chicago. Now in Cincinnati, Dan presents the haunting solo E.P. Stars + Specks drops on zapruderpoint.bandcamp.com.

Over the years Dan Phillips has shared bills with Bill Fox, Jason Molina, Bowerbirds, Shelley Short, The Rutabega, Anders Parker, Franklin Bruno, Canasta, Scrawl, Whitehorse, Coed Pageant, Flat Duo Jets, Terrible Parade, Earwig, and Benjamin Francis Leftwich.

Dan currently lives in Cincinnati’s Northside neighborhood with his partner, Amy Stewart, and their son, Archer.