Another breathy-voiced acoustic folk-pop singer-songwriter with another CD full of precious, self-consciously artful songs. Do we really have to?<\/p>\n
Well, yes, we do. Because Jon Troast possesses that indefinable something that separates the wheat from the chaff, folksinger-wise — that je ne\u00a0se quoi\u00a0of sincerity, wit, melodicism and observational power that elevates these songs from folk-pop clich\u00e9 and lands them squarely in the rich storytelling tradition of a David Wilcox or a James Taylor.<\/p>\n
Folk singer-songwriters — the ones worth listening to — tend to take a path that parallels but doesn\u2019t necessarily intersect with pop songwriting. The chorus in a pop song is the simple, repeated-multiple-times phrase the audience sings back to you at your arena show; its meaning doesn\u2019t usually extend much beyond that. In the folk tradition, the most memorable songs build a series of insights around a central line or image that functions as a sort of topic sentence-slash-punchline to the scenario the writer has set to music.<\/p>\n
Troast here displays a gift for finding that resonant phrase to build his songs around, whether the subject is falling in love (\u201cThe closer she gets, the more I forget \/ About everything that\u2019s not her\u201d) or the emptiness of materialism (\u201cIf I\u2019m gonna leave it all behind \/ Was it ever really mine?\u201d). Displaying comparable craft, \u201cThe Most\u201d captures the giddiness of new love, while \u201cHurt Me Like A Good Friend\u201d sifts through the dark ruins of a crumbled one. <\/p>\n
In every case, Troast\u2019s words and the music behind them mesh beautifully; these tunes all grow from the base of his sharp acoustic playing (love the lilting intro to \u201cEverything Not Her\u201d), but deliver variety as well as Troast builds out tracks like the gorgeous ballad \u201cMary Jane\u201d with piano and strings, while going for a spare, gritty, almost urban sound on the self-lacerating \u201cKnock Down.\u201d Troast\u2019s vocals have the throaty, lived-in sound of a James Blunt or John Ondrasik, with precise yet effortless phrasing that\u2019s pitch-perfect for these songs.<\/p>\n
Second Story<\/em>, Troast\u2019s sixth independently released disc, was produced by Mitch Dane (Jars Of Clay) and features Jars\u2019 Steve Mason on electric guitar, lap steel and banjo. It\u2019s no accident these two lent their considerable talents to an indie singer-songwriter from Lake Geneva, Wisconsin; he\u2019s well worth their time. Jon Troast\u2019s Second Story<\/em> is smartly-crafted folk-pop that delivers both rich melody and clear-eyed insight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":28558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7847],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-40025","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-jon-troast","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40025","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40025"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40025"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}