This album opens with a song titled “Nobody Knows” (perhaps the other side of “Everybody Knows,” a song by Leonard Cohen, one of the great musicians we lost in 2016). Check out the song’s opening lines: “Well, nobody owns this river, and nobody owns this sky/No one knows who owns this valley, no one owns the by and by/This great and gleaming twilight, this wind, these polished stones/Your fleet and agile spirit, my old and broken bones/Nobody knows, nobody knows.” This is an interesting song, because it talks about the things that people don’t know, important things that seem to separate folks, then switches to the things that people care about. The questions are bigger than the cares, at least at first, as Bruce T. Carroll sings, “Everybody cares if the fence is broken, and everybody cares if the dog won’t fight/Everybody cares if the floor ain’t level, and everybody cares if the car won’t start.” Those are more immediate concerns, I suppose, but also things that are more on the surface. Yet as the song progresses, it talks about loss, drawing everyone together in the struggles. It is a compelling opening track, and it features good work on both guitar and piano. The sound turns lighter and more playful on “What’s The Rush,” a fun country number. Still, it touches on some serious subjects. Check out these lines: “At family tables and friendly bars/Where I once had a seat/There’s fearful calls for building walls/And people sleeping in the street.” I love Sara Milonovich’s work on violin.
The album’s title track, “First Bird To Sing,” comes on stronger, with more of a rock vibe, and it features the addition of a horn section. Jay Collins plays tenor saxophone and baritone saxophone, and Chris Pasin plays trumpet on this one, and Carla Springer contributes some wonderful backing vocal work. In addition to all that, there is a good lead guitar part in the middle of the track. This one too addresses a serious subject, dealing with loss, a loss you never get over but which becomes a part of your life and outlook, with questions of what might have been. Toward the end, the pace picks up, the song suddenly rushing along to its conclusion. Bruce T. Carroll changes gears with “‘Til It’s Time To Go,” his passionate vocal delivery supported at first just by Will Bryant on keys. This song takes us into the glow of memory, and reminds us not only of our travels, of what we’ve learned and experienced, but also of that place inside us that doesn’t change, the place we can always return to. It’s a pretty song. “You can hold me in your arms/Until it’s time to go.” Gary Schreiner then joins him on harmonica on “Dragonfly In A Jar,” delivering some really nice work. Marc Shulman plays electric guitar on this track. “If you want to save the world from all the struggle and the strife/It's hard to do from where you are/Between the hidden and the seen we’re all stuck here in between/Like a dragonfly in a jar.” This track also contains more good stuff on violin, and a nice bass line. Life feels like a dream, and a short one at that. There is a hopeful, positive bent to this song.
On “I Let Go,” Bruce T. Carroll’s vocals have a deliciously raw quality, which is perfect for the subject and attitude. This track also has a good rhythm. Here is a taste of the lyrics: “You took out the truth/And you put in lies/Well, I held on...as I watched you slip away/Oh, I held on...there was nothing that I could say/I held on… And now I let go.” At some point, you just have to let go. We’ve all that those moments where we’ve stayed in a relationship longer than we should have, stuck with a job longer than we should have. And then we hit that tipping point, where we finally say the hell with it. For a few years, I wondered when enough would be enough for those who voted for Trump, what would be the thing that would finally cause those people to say, The hell with this guy. Shockingly, that moment has not yet arrived, and likely never will. “Well, I’m not nostalgic/And I’m not mean/I’m just tired of this scene.” And speaking of those people, Bruce T. Carroll follows that song with “Don’t Take Your Love Lightly (MAGA Girl).” It starts with these lines: “You can tell me that the sun won’t rise in the morning/Tell me that the river’s gonna roll uphill/Tell me that the wind won’t blow but one way/I’ll believe you, I will.” That’s it, isn’t it? Their sense of reality is so twisted that lies seem like the only truth. How do you reach those people? You don’t. You walk away from them. Will they eventually feel foolish? I don’t know. I still think that maybe in a decade there will be people who will start denying they supported this guy. But who knows? “You never did your homework/You never paid the bill/You never told the simple truth/Looks like you never will.” I love that guitar part in the middle of this track. The chorus has something of a Byrds flavor. The album concludes with “Grandfather Walks,” which features some nice work by Tommy Mandel on accordion. And I love the way that violin rises like a spirit, or like one able to converse with spirits. This song has an undeniable beauty. “The heart is an infinite whole rising moon/And wisdom’s a soft falling rain/Youth is a faint and a faraway tune/And time is a slow moving train.”
CD Track List
- Nobody Knows
- What’s The Rush
- First Bird To Sing
- ‘Til It’s Time To Go
- Dragonfly In A Jar
- I Let Go
- Don’t Take Love Lightly (MAGA Girl)
- Grandfather Walks
First Bird To Sing was released on September 17, 2021.
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