By Scotty Richter
Folk music has always had a particular affection for small things carrying large meanings: a ribbon, a river stone, an old photograph, a flower pressed between the pages of a book. On “Four Leaf Clover” (Remix), Pittsburgh singer-songwriter Bob Augustine, who records as Folk-IndieBob, takes one of the most familiar emblems of good fortune and asks what it means to people who have spent more time looking for luck than finding it.
The answer is neither sentimental nor cynical. Augustine understands that the four-leaf clover matters precisely because it is rare. Its value comes from the searching, the willingness to keep looking closely at an ordinary patch of ground while believing something extraordinary might be hidden there.
“Picking up a four leaf clover / Turn it over / Hold it up to the light,” Augustine sings at the beginning. It is a modest image, but it establishes the song’s central tension. The narrator wants to believe that this discovery might be “the key” to making his life better, yet he cannot surrender completely to superstition. He turns the clover over. He examines it in the light. He even wonders whether he should pick another.
That uncertainty gives “Four Leaf Clover” its emotional credibility. This is not a song promising that positive thinking will solve every problem. It is about the stubborn impulse to hope after experience has given a person ample reason to be cautious.
The remix preserves the intimacy of Augustine’s songwriting while providing it with a fuller musical frame. Mike Hickman, who produced the track and contributed electric guitar, bass, percussion, and backing vocals, expands its acoustic foundation without overwhelming it. The instrumentation supports the words instead of competing with them. Each addition feels intended to deepen the atmosphere, not advertise the production.
Hickman’s electric guitar brings warmth and occasional flashes of color, while the rhythm section gives the song the steady motion of someone continuing down a familiar road. Doug Casper’s mix allows the instruments room to breathe, and Joseph Freeman’s mastering lends the recording clarity without polishing away its handmade character.
That balance is essential because Augustine’s words depend upon directness. “Better than it was, better than it is / Better than I ever could have hoped or thought it could be,” he sings in the refrain. The repetition has the sound of self-persuasion, as though the narrator is trying to speak a better future into existence.
Then comes the sharper truth: “Make another joke, dry another tear / Run around with crazy hopes and lucky stars in my eyes.” The lines recognize the complicated ways people survive disappointment. Sometimes laughter and optimism are expressions of joy. Sometimes they are the tools used to keep despair from taking control.
Augustine’s most intriguing image arrives when he sings, “Falling for that same old notion / I bought the ocean / Someone sold it to me.” It is funny, melancholy, and quietly revealing. The narrator knows he has purchased an impossible promise. He understands that he has been seduced by his own imagination, yet some part of him still wants the ocean to be his.
“Guess I’m just another dreamer / Dreaming of the way I want it to be,” he admits. In lesser hands, such a declaration might sound naïve. Augustine makes it sound necessary. Dreaming is not presented as an escape from reality but as a way of enduring it. People continue imagining better lives because the alternative is to accept that nothing can change.
The song’s narrator eventually declares that if he finds the clover, he will bring it over and “show it off to the world.” The discovery would become something communal rather than private. That detail reflects an important quality in Augustine’s work: he writes from personal observation, but his songs are constructed to be shared. Listeners are invited to place their own disappointments, wishes, and improbable hopes inside them.
The remix arrives during a period of growing recognition for Augustine. His earlier single “The Candy Wrapper” reached the Top 10 of the UK iTunes Singer-Songwriter chart, while his performances at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival introduced his storytelling to an international audience. Yet “Four Leaf Clover” remains grounded in the scale of coffeehouses, galleries, poetry readings, and listening rooms.
Its strength lies in that closeness. Augustine does not offer grand revelations or easy assurances. He offers a song about continuing to search, even when luck has been inconsistent and happy endings remain uncertain.
“Four Leaf Clover” suggests that hope may not be something we find at all. Perhaps it is the decision to keep looking, and to hold whatever we discover up to the light.
