Stoll Vaughan: “Dream In Color” (2024) CD Review

Stoll Vaughan is a singer and songwriter originally from Lexington, Kentucky. His journey took him to Bloomington, Indiana and eventually to Los Angeles, where he spent more than a decade, and where I saw him open for Bird Streets in 2018. At that time he was playing material from what was his new album, The Conversation. His first album, Hold On Thru Sleep & Dreams, came out in 2004. He followed that with Love Like A Mule, The Conversation and Desires Shape, that last released in April of 2020, when the pandemic was raging and live music was difficult to find. He has now moved back to Kentucky, where he recorded his new album, Dream In Color. This album features all original material. Joining Stoll Vaughan on this release are John Ginty on keyboards, Mike Grosser on bass, and Dane Clark on drums, along with a couple of guests on certain tracks.

The album opens with “Just Another Day.” Early in this track Stoll Vaughan sings, “I ain’t got no friends around here at all,” and I can’t help but wonder what place he is speaking of. Could it be part of what provoked the move? “I’ve been looking for some answers/Ain’t nothing correct” are lines that likely will speak to many people, and his voice is one that seems to speak for us. “Just another day/Slipping away.” Oh man, those lines hit hard, in part because of the way he pauses between them. This track also includes some strong, emotional work on harmonica. “Called up my doctor/About feeling this way/She said, ‘Grow up, boy/You’ve got to tolerate your pain.’” Sometimes it feels like that is all we can do, that is all we’re supposed to do. There is no way to rid ourselves of the pain, and the days keep slipping away, so we just have to deal with it. This is one hell of a good song to begin the album.

Duane Betts joins Stoll Vaughan on guitar for “Fate,” and of course delivers some wonderful work. Stoll Vaughan co-produced Duane Betts’ 2018 release Sketches Of American Music, and co-wrote several of its tracks. This track also features some good work on keys. It pulls me in from its opening moments, with its mood, its vibe. Right from the start, it feels like a song that could make us all cry if it wished, though not from sadness. Check out these lines: “Never been no man that you really need/But through and through your aim’s been true/You don’t care about the things that I can’t do.” And I love these lines: “You could have any man, oh, any day/It’s sweet of you to want to see me through/This narrow passage we’ve been born into.” Is it fate? I’ve tended to reject that idea, for it speaks of a lack of control and it hints at some larger force at play in our lives. But there are times when it feels like things couldn’t, or at least shouldn’t, have played out any other way, and I feel fortunate to be with the woman who has come into my life and stayed. Fate? Maybe. Who knows? This song was released as a single a couple of weeks ago.

Then Johnny Stachela plays guitar on “Thick Of It,” a song that has a gentle, prettier vibe as it begins. Perhaps it is because the holiday has just passed, but these lines caught my ear: “Putting lights on the tree/Yeah, that movie warms his heart/It reminds him he can fix the broken parts.” I assume he’s talking about It’s A Wonderful Life. Another line that stands out to me is this one: “And the sun keeps coming up day after day.” Sometimes that is surprising, sometimes it is comforting, and sometimes it is infuriating, the way the universe refuses to acknowledge whatever hell we might be experiencing. “Nobody gives a damn what the hell you need,” he sings, but sings it gently, and the track has a friendly vibe. There is some really nice guitar work on this track. That’s followed by “Farmers Almanac,” which has a cool, bluesy vibe as it opens. It’s a song about the land emerging from winter. “Well, the ground is heating is up/And the winter wants to end.” It soon develops a delicious groove, and features wonderful stuff on keys, plus more great stuff on harmonica in the second half.

“Dream In Color” is the album’s title track, and it’s interesting how this is Stoll Vaughan’s second album title to refer to dreams. All my dreams are in color, but I remember a Saturday Night Live skit from the 1980s that was riffing on the obsession people had with the JFK assassination, and in it the assassin (played by Eddie Murphy) asks the assembled newsmen if they dream in color or black and white. Up to that point, it hadn’t occurred to me that some people dream in black and white. In this song, Stoll Vaughan sings, “Take me to that river where the colors come back to my dreams,” a beautiful line. This track features a lot of excellent lyrics such as “If I ask for forgiveness, what if nothing changed” and “This world can be cruel, sharp and unkind/I’d be a fool not to change in your eyes.” “Brother James” also mentions dreams in its lyrics: “Raised by drunkards with no dreams/Held by the hunger of their need.” This is a tender and touching track, one of my favorites. “I did my best, you never saw me cry/Ain’t scared of no death, you know it comes right on time.”

Johnny Stachela returns on guitar for “Killing Floor.” I love this track from that opening on drums. It takes a moment to ease in, then develops a good bluesy vibe. It’s an intriguing number, with a cool vocal performance and some good work on guitar. Here is a taste of the lyrics: “You say you don’t know me, but we have met before/I’m the one that keeps you off that killing floor/Good lies with evil, instincts they drive it home.” The album then concludes with “1883,” a song with a strong and wonderful rhythm. “We gotta keep moving when there’s nowhere left to go/And all that we fear, we’ll face it in the end/Out in the badlands.”

CD Track List

1. Just Another Day
2. Fate
3. Thick Of It
4. Farmers Almanac
5. Dream In Color
6. Brother James
7. Killing Floor
8. 1883

Dream In Color is scheduled to be released on February 23, 2024.