Biography
Silas J. Dirge is the moniker adopted by Netherlands-based alt-country songwriter Jan Kooiker. With mostly character-driven and story-based lyrics he explores subjects like death, religion and (lost) love while accompanying himself on a beat-up acoustic guitar.
His writing style can be described as traditional old-school country - sometimes with as little as two chords per song - lyrically leaning towards darker themes. He uses a minimalistic approach when writing, carefully selecting instruments and narrowing down arrangements to a bare minimum. Arrangements consisting of dissonant vocal harmonies, distorted electric guitars drenched in reverb, an old saloon piano playing sparse, slightly off-key notes or an even older squeaky harmonium. And sometimes it's just him singing and accompanying himself on his trusty, old acoustic guitar.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.