Hold On opens with its title track, an original composition with lyrics by Mark Winkler and music by Greg Gordon Smith. It establishes a cool groove and mood with its opening instrumental section, featuring saxophone. And check out these first lines: "When your world is turning crazy/And there's dragons at the gate/When your yesses turn to maybes/And your dreams are keeping you awake." Those are lines I bet most people can relate to. Soon he tells us, "It's going to be okay." And, for whatever reason, when we hear that in song, we believe it. We need to believe it. This song reaches out to us, telling us to hold on. If the outside world is a mess, and our own personal worlds are also messy, it's difficult to know just what to hold onto. But music provides something of an answer. It is within music that we find humanity, that we hear its soul. This track features a wonderful rhythm, and an excellent lead by John Beasley on piano. That piano seems able to hold us up, and then the saxophone lead seems to give us a reason to keep going. That's followed by "A Little Taste," a song written by Johnny Hodges and Dave Frishberg. This track has a cool, delightful vibe from its start, and there is a sense of fun in Mark's vocal delivery. "A little taste might hit the spot/A little taste might help a lot." I love the drumming here too. The percussion is like a character itself, and the instrumental section, with its leads by Eric Reed on piano and Grant Geissmann on guitar, has such a cheerful vibe. "A little taste might break the ice/And make the naughty seem like nice."
Mark Winkler delivers an excellent rendition of "If I Were A Bell," a song about how great it feels to be in love. What an incredible feeling. It is something that fills us and spills over to the outside, and the band captures that so well here, expressing it perfectly. The line from this song that especially makes me smile is "If I were a salad, I know I'd be splashing my dressing." If everyone could feel that, wouldn't most of the world's problems disappear? That's followed by "Cat Women On The Moon," an original number with lyrics by Mark Winkler and music by Jamieson Trotter. This track has a wonderful joy too. with a great groove and a weird otherworldly element that is just completely delightful. It's like a great jazz band colliding with one of those early low budget science fiction films. It's silly and fun and wonderful. "Maybe there's a monster lurking here/Dressed up in a rubber suit/Maybe there's an evil queen or two." I don't see how anyone could keep from totally falling for this number. This song contains nods to "Come Fly With Me" and "Do Wah Diddy," and the track's bright work on trumpet contains a cool nod to "Rhapsody In Blue." And check out that drumming! Joey De Leon is on percussion here. And if you want even more from this track, it has a cha-cha-cha ending. So there.
Mark Winkler's cover of "It Was A Very Good Year" begins with some really nice work by Jamison Trotter on piano. At first, that is the only instrument that supports Mark's voice. Soon guitar, bass and percussion are added (that's Joey De Leon on percussion again). And the track features some lovely work on trumpet. Yet remaining at the heart of this piece, along with the vocal performance, is the piano. This song means more and more to me as I get older, and it is clear the same is true for Mark Winkler, who delivers an excellent performance. He follows that with "My Future's Just A Memory," an original number that very quickly begins to swing. "And time is short/So before it's gone/Let's not brood on what's already done." Those lines grab me. I'm sure I'm not the only one these days to constantly reflect on how short our time is. It is why I frequently marvel at the ways folks choose to use this finite amount of time. But this song is about the joy of it all, the joy of the moment, of making memories, even as everything passes, including one's future. It all is okay, so long as we can be with that special someone. After all, that's what it is all about. "These moments I thought had disappeared/Are coming back strong, the sky is clear." This track contains a strong lead by Tamir Hendelman on piano. "Let's make a memory," Mark repeats at the end, bringing those of us listening into his embrace.
Billy Joel has been coming up a lot lately in conversations, leading me to want to revisit his 1970s output, especially Turnstiles and The Stranger. He wrote some great songs, including "Vienna," a song from The Stranger that Mark Winkler covers here. This song has something of a similar theme, about the passing of time, about not rushing through life. "You've got so much to do, and only so many hours in a day/But you know when the truth is told/That you can get what you want or you can just get old/You're gonna kick off before you even get halfway through." Mark Winkler delivers a touching rendition. This line stands out for me: "Take the phone off the hook and disappear for a while." These days it's impossible to take the phone off the hook, but it's probably even more important to occasionally detach oneself from that constant stream of information and images. We all need to turn that machine off and give ourselves a day or two, or more. Then "Train In The Desert" begins with spoken word, supported by drumming that creates the motion of a train. That narration is done by Greg Gordon Smith, who also plays piano on this track and co-wrote the song with Mark. This track has a darker vibe, and it tells a tale, feeling like a short story (the spoken word narration at the beginning of course helps set up that sense). "There was something in her hand, and she hid it from the dim light/It could free her from the regret and the pain." This track features some wonderful stuff on piano, and also some really good guitar work toward the end. It concludes with more spoken word, this time just a single line.
"I want someone crazy to ruin my life," Mark sings at the beginning of "The Devil Don't Want A Saint." That opening line had me laughing out loud the first time I listened to this disc. This song is all about how we tell ourselves we want someone sane and sweet and normal, but end up going for someone a bit less stable. "Someone with problems that can't be fixed/Who'll leave me begging for mercy and writing bad checks." It's a fun song with a very playful sense about it. This track contains great stuff on saxophone, particularly during that intriguing instrumental section, which also features some cool work on piano by Rich Eames. This track is another of the disc's highlights. Everything about it works perfectly. "Nice people scare me, so pour the vermouth." That's followed by "My Electric Car." The lyrics to this one describe a world that is shining and clean. A friend has an electric car, and he loves it, but the time he has to spend at charging stations would drive me insane. I am hoping they'll improve soon, and the world of this song can become the real world. This track contains nice stuff on piano by Greg Gordon Smith, who co-wrote the song. Plus, this one features Lemar Guillary on trombone, as well as Bob Sheppard on saxophone and Brian Swartz on trumpet. The trumpet then helps set the great late-night tone of "I Dream Of You Each Night," the album's final track. Eric Reed's piano work also does a lot to create the mood. Mark's voice seems to come to us from the moments deep in the night when time has little meaning, or, rather, the hour has little meaning, and time has a fluid character, the past and imagination colliding with the present. His voice perfectly conveys that sense. It is a song of desire, and it is beautiful.
CD Track List
- Hold On
- A Little Taste
- If I Were A Bell
- Cat Women On The Moon
- It Was A Very Good Year
- My Future's Just A Memory
- Vienna
- Train In The Desert
- The Devil Don't Want A Saint
- My Electric Car
- I Dream Of You Each Night
Hold On was released on August 1, 2025.
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