This is not the Artie Traum of old. <\/p>\n
No longer making smooth jazz-type music, Traum has gone back to a rootsier singer\/songwriter vibe for his new disc Thief Of Time. <\/i>Recruiting King Crimson’s Tony Levin on bass, as well as other special guests and key players, Traum’s new disc is a subdued but compelling affair, excellent driving or coffeeshop music. <\/p>\n
A strong Steely Dan vibe permeates the music, giving this a touch of jazz, because one can never let go of their roots. But instead of settling for predictable, Traum and his band give the songs a tasteful, heartfelt feel, particularly the opening “Bonnie Jean” and “Halifax.” <\/p>\n
“Midnight Blue” features some great acoustic picking and background vocals, and “Back In The Sugar Cane” offers a quiet Brazilian beat and vocals from Donna Lewis. It’s difficult to pull off this sort of music without regurgitating the many male acoustic singer\/songwriters or smooth jazz pieces out there, but Traum somehow does it, and that’s to his everlasting credit. <\/p>\n
Other reviews call this Americana music, which it’s really not, except maybe for the Delta blues-esque “Where The Blues Began.” It’s more a mix of folk and jazz led by Traum, who Pete Seeger once said had “golden fingers.” So classifying this isn’t a good use of time. Letting it work its magic is a better idea. <\/p>\n
The best example of those golden fingers is “Cuckoo Bird,” a warm, intimate folk piece with more going on than its surface would indicate. “Last Tree In The Bronx” is similar, a sad piece with a country vibe, and not just because of the story it tells. <\/p>\n
Thief Of Time <\/i>will appeal to fans of folk music, acoustic singer\/songwriter music, the blues and jazz. One has to be in the mood to really appreciate it, since it’s a little too subdued at times, but when in that mood this disc strikes the perfect chord. The exchange of solid songwriting for excitement or emotion would be welcome also, as a couple of these tracks just aren’t memorable, no matter how many times one tries to like them. <\/p>\n
That is not the case when John Sebastian drops by to put some baritone guitar on “Insult A Man,” which adds another dimension to a downbeat song of regret, sounding a little like a Springsteen meets Johnny Cash piece. “Country Boy Blues” ends the disc with no fanfare, no flourish, but with taste and class. Just like the rest of the disc. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":28973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8033],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-40479","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-artie-traum","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40479","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\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40479"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}