Dashdown: “Can’t Get Too High Or Low” (2024) CD Review

Dave Ashdown is a singer and songwriter and guitarist that you might know from his work in the group Waiting For Henry. If you are not familiar with that band, I highly recommend checking out the 2016 release Town Called Patience, which was produced by Mitch Easter. In 2019, he released his first EP as a solo artist, 3 From Me, recording it under the name Dashdown. His new EP is Can’t Get Too High Or Low, his name now presented as dASHDOWN on the CD cover (on earlier EPs, it was written in all capital letters). Two of the tracks on this disc were worked on and recorded in Cortez, Florida during Hurricane Idalia last summer, the vocals and acoustic guitar performed together in the same take without overdubs. Dave Ashdown plays guitar, bass and percussion on this EP, which was recorded by Tristan Forgus at his home studio.

The EP opens with its title track, “Can’t Get Too High Or Low.” Dave Ashdown’s great raw vocal delivery is perfect for the song’s theme of trying to find balance, of not quite having it together. “I left you/To find me/I love you/Beside me,” he sings near the beginning of the song. He then sings “Your sunshine/Could tide me over.” That light within is soon contrasted with the weather outside, as he tells us, “It’s raining outside, dear.” The track was recorded once the winds of the hurricane had abated enough that they wouldn’t interfere with the sound. There is a cool, somewhat laidback vibe to this song, and fans of Wilco will dig this track. That’s followed by “Hurricane Honeys.” Its opening lines, “Ain’t afraid to write a country song/Tell you lies sure as the day is long,” make me smile each time I listen to this disc. And the chorus is totally catchy. “But these hurricane honeys kept me up all night/Lost my cool, got into a fight/Saw you leaving there with that one guy.” Sometimes a country song is the only proper vehicle for what you’re experiencing, what you want to say, and this song is wonderful. It’s my personal favorite of the disc’s three tracks. The EP concludes with its rawest, and also shortest, number, “Miss Hucklebuck,” a song inspired by a pub in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. It has the vibe of a demo. This one was not recorded during the hurricane, but in Chicago, though with a similar approach to the first two tracks. On this one, he plays electric guitar rather than acoustic. By the way, Dave Ashdown released a video for this song.

CD Track List

1. Can’t Get Too High Or Low
2. Hurricane Honeys
3. Miss Hucklebuck

Can’t Get Too High Or Low was released on January 25, 2024.