The album opens with its title track, "High Hopes And Low Expectations." This song begins with a question: "What can I say/That's not a worn-out cliche/In such a way/As to make it my own?" It's an interesting thought with which to begin an album, suggesting that all that follows is the answer. When I think of low expectations, I am generally expressing an attitude toward the population at large, but here he talks about low expectations regarding his own life and career, which is perhaps more doleful. Yet he actually makes it something positive, even spinning it with some humor. "Filled with doubt/Avoiding imitation/I got high hopes/Low expectations." This song is a few years old, Randall having introduced it online in January of 2022. "I try to be grateful/For what I got/I don't want to be/A big sensation/But I got high hopes/And low expectations." So, yeah, the song has a personal feel to it, and is about a songwriter's circumstances, but that doesn't mean it's not applicable to whatever we have going on in our own lives. "Keep an open mind/To what I hear and see/There might be a song/Out there looking for me."
He follows that with the playfully titled "Robert Frost And Yogi Berra Walking Down The Road/Life Goes On." The first lines of Robert Frost's most famous poem are "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,/And sorry I could not travel both," while Yogi Berra is quoted as once having said, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." So it is a joy to imagine these two walking along a road together. And, yes, they soon come to a fork in the road in this song. "And to this very day/History still remembers what they had to say." Randall Lamb offers several of those great Yogi Berra gems in this song. There is a sweet, innocent vibe to this song, just as there was an innocence to much of what Yogi had to say. Randall then begins "The Hudson River Song" with these lines: "On a train by the Hudson River/Tracks and river running side by side." That's a great image, isn't it? Two methods of travel, one man-made, one natural, both going in the same direction. This is a song about heading into nature, with him declaring he will not return to New York City, an idea which works so well with the pleasant, natural, and friendly folk vibe of this song. This track features some really nice work on guitar. This music makes me feel good, hopeful.
The first half of the title of "Singing Songs Around The Campfire Across The River From Mexico" reminds me of those back yard parties with Fur Dixon & Steve Werner, when folks would gather around the fire and trade songs. But that was in Van Nuys, and this song, the opening licks on guitar assure us, takes place some distance from there. "We drifted down to the Rio Grande/To watch the waters flow/We sang songs around the campfire/Across the river from Mexico." This song mentions Townes Van Zandt in its lyrics. Randall Lamb fits in that tradition with folks like Townes Van Zandt and Woody Guthrie and John Prine and Dave Van Ronk. "Trying to keep it all together/After so much time alone/Down below these canyon walls/I let my worries go/Singing songs around the campfire/Across the river from Mexico." Close your eyes, and let his voice and guitar take you there. That's followed by "Dust Devils Dancing By The Side Of The Road, " a song of the road, one with a lonesome vibe. "I like the way the light looks/As the sun goes down/Been a long time coming/I had to get away/I followed my loneliness/Down the lost highway." You can picture a man seated on some rocky outcrop, seen in silhouette as the earth darkens, looking out at the last light. The song has that feeling, and there is something so appealing in that. Then he sings, "Sometimes I just need to roam/Under open skies on an open road/'Til my mind gets right/And then I go back home." I assume we all need those moments. And maybe a lot of our unhappiness comes from us not getting them. So we turn to music as a way of being there without being there.
There is a lighter, more cheerful sound and attitude to "Plug Nickel." "Life is funny and life is fickle/I haven't done nothing worth a plug nickel/Sometimes I just sit around, waiting for rain," he sings at the beginning. It is a song about being a songwriter, at least partly. But it is about a lot more than that. Check out these lines: "Sometimes life lets you choose/Sometimes it's over before you get the news/I guess that's what they mean by 'That's how it goes'/You got your future, and you got your past/None of them are meant to last/And the here and now go by in the blink of an eye." Indeed. This song came out of the pandemic, about a year after it started. "Put your head out the window, let me tell you the news/Everybody's walking around with the blues/A heart full of soul, and a head full of pain." Ah, those lines ring true now too. This is one of my favorites. It's followed by "Thoughts And Prayers." Whenever I hear someone offer thoughts and prayers to the families of victims of gun violence, I want to tear that person to pieces. Guns are the problem, and anyone who says otherwise is part of that problem. There will always be crazy people, depressed people, unhinged people. We have to keep the guns out of their hands. We have to make guns incredibly difficult to obtain. Of course another problem is a lack of true compassion among the nation's leadership. Didn't you think after the first group of school children were killed that strict new laws would be implemented immediately? I did. I was so wrong. Now I have low expectations. "Thoughts and prayers/That's what you give/Make 'em think you care/When there's nothing there/You give thoughts and prayers." This song states its case gently and simply, without screaming, without swearing, something that is tough to do, I think.
"Ghosts And Memories" is also about songwriting, and not doing it for money or fame. "I'm writing to have a song to sing/A song with something to say/Something that's been on my mind/Try to get it before it slips away." I don't think Randall Lamb ever lacks something important to say. We hear it in the songs of this album. Just take the previous track, for example. This song's final lines are particularly striking: "I'm writing for the ghosts and the memories/That we meet as we're passing through." The album concludes with "So Far So Good," a song with an uplifting sound, with a playful bent. "I was driving/Just to get away/To get away from what/I cannot say." I think most of us can relate to those lines. "I thought I left my troubles/So far behind/But I was too busy leaving/To care what I would find." He then changes from "I" to "we": "We're on a road that has no beginning and no end." Yes, we are all involved in this thing. I love how Randall Lamb ends this album with a hopeful song. We still have to have those high hopes, right? "Nothing ever turns out like I thought it would/But so far so good."
CD Track List
- High Hopes And Low Expectations
- Robert Frost And Yogi Berra Walking Down The Road/Life Goes On
- The Hudson River Song
- Singing Songs Around The Campfire Across The River From Mexico
- Dust Devils Dancing By The Side Of The Road
- Plug Nickel
- Thoughts And Prayers
- Ghosts And Memories
- So Far So Good
High Hopes And Low Expectations was released on July 1, 2025.
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