Will the public ever regain an admiration for
\nsinger\/songwriters? When will the song, not the performer’s look or
\nattitude, but the actual song, ever become important again?
\nUnfortunately, I can’t answer this question. However, in the
\nmeantime, there are a lot of talented songwriters toiling
\nanonymously, not for the fame, but for the sheer love of music.<\/p>\n
One example of this is the Boston-based singer\/songwriter Kevin
\nMcCluskey. McCluskey, a Berklee College of Music professor, has
\nrecently put out a new CD called
\nTrust<\/i>. Does he expect to make any money off of it? Well, no.
\nHe is actually not going to make a dime off of it; the profits of
\nhis CD are going to the Sierra Club and other non-profit
\ngroups.<\/p>\n
The CD starts off strongly with the slow, but powerful “Down The
\nLine”. This is a soul-searching tune that tries to answer the
\nquestion posed in the opening lines “What’s a Man?\/What’s he
\nworth?”. The mood is perfectly set with McCluskey’s minor key
\nacoustic guitar, and an a ominous bass solo by Michael Rivard.<\/p>\n
I am a little disappointed that McCluskey did not build upon
\nthis theme, although the song “Only Time Will Tell” does return to
\nit in the form of satire. Instead,
\nTrust<\/i> displays a lot of moods and different musical
\nexpressions. This is not surprising to me because by looking at the
\ncopyright dates of the songs, I assume they were written years
\napart. If the rest of
\nTrust<\/i> is not quite as powerful as the opening song, there is
\nstill plenty to like about this CD.<\/p>\n
For example, “To The Sun” and “Fly Me Away” are solid love
\nsongs. McCluskey has a good sense of melody. He gives these songs
\nand others on
\nTrust<\/i> the kind of melodies that stick in your head. On the
\nother hand, these melodies can also make the songs seem deceptively
\nsimple. “News From Home” sounds like it could be a commercial
\njingle for life insurance, until the listener realizes this is a
\nsong about two estranged brothers getting together after a long
\nabsence.<\/p>\n
The arrangements are very well done. Many of the songs are
\nbacked by piano and\/or acoustic guitar, and for extra seasoning,
\nthe violin and dobro (in a humorous turn, McCluskey mispronounces
\n“dobro” and name checks the player, David Hamburger).
\nTrust<\/i> also puts the Burns Sisters, as well as a vocal group
\ncalled The Swinging Steaks, to good use on backup vocals.<\/p>\n
The last three songs show
\nTrust<\/i> taking some unexpected turns. After the first song,
\nthe CD pretty much plays along pleasantly, comfortable like a pair
\nof old sneakers, when suddenly we hit a bump in the road with “In
\nThe Valley”. This song has a bit of sonic bite thanks to a funky,
\nelectric guitar part that dominates what would have otherwise been
\nanother melodic, midtempo song.<\/p>\n
However, that is nothing compared to the last two cuts.
\nMcCluskey has been compared to artists ranging from Bruce
\nSpringsteen to Nick Lowe. One artist he is compared with is Warren
\nZevon. I definitely hear this influence on the song “Brain Damage”,
\nwhere he is right on the money in capturing Zevon’s quirky brand of
\nrock. If Mr. Zevon ever hears this song, I would suspect that he
\nwished he had written it.<\/p>\n
The final song, “Trouble”, is indeed a curiousity. McCluskey
\ndisplays an ability to mine an early Tom Waits tongue in cheek,
\nstream of consciousness style of jazz. This cut takes a little
\nwhile to get used to, and you are either going to eventually find
\nthis charming or annoying. Personally, I found it charming. There’s
\nalso some nice work here from Dave Limina on the B3 organ.<\/p>\n
All in all,
\nTrust<\/i> is a solid, enjoyable folk-rock album, and I recommend
\nit. However, if your local record store does not carry
\nTrust<\/i>, you can find it at Borders Books, Newbury Comics (if
\nyou are in the New England area), or visit the label’s website at
\nthe link below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":25883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6601],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-37089","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-kevin-mccluskey","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37089"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}