The disc opens with “Hey Yeah,
All Right,” its first lines being “When I
was a young man, my heart beat steady/Now I’m getting older, and I’m feeling
heavy.” Yup, a blues song whose first lines are about aging is certainly
going to speak to me. And haven’t we all aged a tremendous amount in the last
four years? Who isn’t feeling the effects of this disastrous and incompetent
administration? But then the horns come in, and I’m lifted up. Plus,
Jon Strahl tells us “It’s all right,”
a message I need to hear several times a day. Lyrically, not a whole lot is
happening, as you might guess from the song’s title, but it is enough. “I’m lonely/And you’re the only one/I want
your love/I need your love.” When you feel like that, sometimes you can’t
say much more. And not much more is needed. There is a cool, funky instrumental
section toward the end, and I love that bass line. That’s followed by “How
Long,” and right away I am digging that heavy, steady beat, with that great
bluesy guitar driving right into us. “How
long must I wait for you?” It’s a valid question. “You don’t love me, darling, like you used to do.” You get the sense
that he’s willing to wait a while. And meanwhile, the blues keeps pushing
forward.
“Heartache And Toil,” the
album’s title track, has a delicious groove from the start, and features some
cool work on keys. “Won’t you save
me/Won’t you save me/Won’t you save me/Save me from this heartache and
toil/Deliver me from darkness/Burn a little midnight oil.” Ah yes, it seems
we all need a bit of saving these days. This track also features a really nice
lead on guitar in the second half, and is one of my personal favorites. That’s
followed by “The Right Thing,” and when this one kicks in, it also develops a
great groove. “Pretending to be flying
while his soul was a wreck/He was trying to do the right thing/But it doesn’t
feel like the right thing/To do tonight.” This track features a strong
vocal performance, some more nice work on keys, and an absolutely cool bass
line. There is another cool bass line in “Lose My Mind,” as well as a great drum
beat. This one has a bit of a celebratory feel at the start, a bit of a New
Orleans vibe. It is about making some changes and trying to rid himself of the
memories. “Well, I lost you and now I
need to lose these memories/Yeah, I’ve got to find a way to lose my mind.”
The song suddenly slows down, and you get the sense that everything he was
trying came to no avail, that nothing worked. It then picks up again. I love
the guitar part, and this is another of my favorite tracks.
“Can’t Look Back” starts off
slowly, then suddenly kicks in with a jolt and becomes a completely fun number,
one to get you dancing and grooving and forgetting your troubles. And that is
exactly the point, as Jon Strahl tells us, “All
you got to do is try/Leave those broken days behind/You can’t look back, no you
can’t look back/You can’t look back, no, you can’t look back/All those days are
gone.” I am seriously digging this track. There is something loose about it
that I love. And there is more good work on keys, and another excellent bass
line. Then “The Weight I Feel” has a wonderful classic sound, full of soul,
full of passion. And it features a great vocal performance, probably the best
of the album, helping to make this track another of the disc’s highlights. “I want to hold you/But there is something
holding onto me.” There is another fantastic bass line in “Leave Me Alone,”
a track that really moves and features some delicious work from the horn section.
If you need something to help you get off your ass, this track ought to do the
trick. “Well, I don’t need all the dollar
bills in your pocket/And I don’t need all the games you play, you just can’t
stop it/All these things that you see when you’re looking in the mirror/The
farther away I get, they just keep getting clearer and clearer.”
“The Only Ones” has a positive
vibe, and features more good stuff from the horn section. “But I don’t want you to worry about me/Not with this beautiful world
that we got/Because you’re the only ones that I need.” That’s followed by “Day
After Day,” which has something of a bright, uplifting sound. “Now that I see you/Darling, I need you/Day
after day/I finally see you/Darling, I need you/Day after day.” Then “So
Real” begins with some really nice work on acoustic guitar. It soon kicks in,
and there is a joy to the sound. In the line “Wanting you to deliver me to my home,” there are interesting
pauses, before and after the word “me,”
drawing our attention. This is another of the disc’s highlights. It ends as it
began, with some pretty work on guitar. The album concludes with a sweet guitar
instrumental, “Indiana Moonshine.”
CD Track List
- Hey Yeah, All Right
- How Long
- Heartache And Toil
- The Right Thing
- Lose My Mind
- Can’t Look Back
- The Weight I Feel
- Leave Me Alone
- The Only Ones
- Day After Day
- So Real
- Indiana Moonshine
Heartache And Toil was released on April 24, 2020.
No comments:
Post a Comment