JARROD DICKENSON – THE LONESOME TRAVELER
2012 – Self Released
I always think the ‘singer songwriter’ genre must be one of the worst labels to be saddled with in the world of music. It’s boundaries are so wide that it covers most popular music genres and a huge amount of luck is necessary to succeed or the artist needs to narrow those wide boundaries to enable them to be classed within a specific genre, something that most artists I have met have a huge dislike for!
Jarrod Dickenson falls into the former category but that should be balanced against the fact that he is a talented versatile performer and writer with a warm expressive singing voice that is able to inject passion and pathos with equal ease into his well written story songs. This is a very good album that ranges through folk, country and a fairly mellow strain of roots rock with a nice varied instrumentation that is used sparingly enough to avoid overwhelming the songs. Whilst the album is not hugely original there is a large slice of individuality as evidenced by the way he blends the various generic offshoots into a fully formed and entertaining
recording.
This is his second studio recording in a career that also includes a 2010 live album and this one is produced by three time Grammy winner, Ryan Freeland (Ray LaMontagne, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Joe Henry, etc.) at his Stampede Origin Studio. The musicians used on the album are of the highest quality, including artists such as Greg Leisz, David Piltch and Richard Dodd amongst others, indicating the esteem in
which Dickenson is held.
The dozen self penned songs are all excellent, with several being outstanding in their ability to portray stories of a heartrending and thought provoking nature. One of these is No Work For A Working Man, a tremendous banjo driven tale of the hardships faced by a man with a family but no work. A quite harrowing tale of people that through poverty have a scary inability to control any element of their lives, a topic that is as sadly relevant now as in the great depression, without even thinking about the third world. The Northern Sea is an evocative, moodily dark atmospheric tale of deep sea fishermen and the hardships they face, on a song that is beautifully supported by the almost chiming dobro. The beautiful slow ballad, I Remember June is a stunning song with it’s lovely haunting steel and acoustic guitars aided by the cello on a tale of reminiscences, followed by Little Black Dress, a nice percussive easy going song that with the exception of Dickensons warm expressive vocal style, has a Tom Waits feel! Back To Eden is a nice mandolin and acoustic guitar led song that has a dark feel, about a man trying to find his way through life and Bravery (A Bottle Of Gin) includes more nice dobro on a slow moody song about a girl whose lover has gone off to war leaving her to find solace in the bottle. It is another sad, if topical, song that struck me as being a little over the top, with his excellent vocal wrapping itself around the song strengthening the emotions that didn’t really need strengtheing, although there is no doubt it is heartfelt.
Jarrod Dickenson seems to have found a nice balance to his songs. O.k. there are several occasions when the sentiments get close to being over the top but he has the ability to stay well out of the way of tweeness thanks to his ability to garner sympathy for and empathy with the characters that inhabit his songs. The production is excellent, with the vocals and the story in each song having pre-eminence over the instrumentation, showing a confidence by all involved parties in what he is trying to achive. The warmth of his vocals gets the best out of every song and with very minor reservations I wouldn’t be surprised at all if his reputation starts to grow even further.
http://jarroddickenson.com/fr_home.cfm
I always think the ‘singer songwriter’ genre must be one of the worst labels to be saddled with in the world of music. It’s boundaries are so wide that it covers most popular music genres and a huge amount of luck is necessary to succeed or the artist needs to narrow those wide boundaries to enable them to be classed within a specific genre, something that most artists I have met have a huge dislike for!
Jarrod Dickenson falls into the former category but that should be balanced against the fact that he is a talented versatile performer and writer with a warm expressive singing voice that is able to inject passion and pathos with equal ease into his well written story songs. This is a very good album that ranges through folk, country and a fairly mellow strain of roots rock with a nice varied instrumentation that is used sparingly enough to avoid overwhelming the songs. Whilst the album is not hugely original there is a large slice of individuality as evidenced by the way he blends the various generic offshoots into a fully formed and entertaining
recording.
This is his second studio recording in a career that also includes a 2010 live album and this one is produced by three time Grammy winner, Ryan Freeland (Ray LaMontagne, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Joe Henry, etc.) at his Stampede Origin Studio. The musicians used on the album are of the highest quality, including artists such as Greg Leisz, David Piltch and Richard Dodd amongst others, indicating the esteem in
which Dickenson is held.
The dozen self penned songs are all excellent, with several being outstanding in their ability to portray stories of a heartrending and thought provoking nature. One of these is No Work For A Working Man, a tremendous banjo driven tale of the hardships faced by a man with a family but no work. A quite harrowing tale of people that through poverty have a scary inability to control any element of their lives, a topic that is as sadly relevant now as in the great depression, without even thinking about the third world. The Northern Sea is an evocative, moodily dark atmospheric tale of deep sea fishermen and the hardships they face, on a song that is beautifully supported by the almost chiming dobro. The beautiful slow ballad, I Remember June is a stunning song with it’s lovely haunting steel and acoustic guitars aided by the cello on a tale of reminiscences, followed by Little Black Dress, a nice percussive easy going song that with the exception of Dickensons warm expressive vocal style, has a Tom Waits feel! Back To Eden is a nice mandolin and acoustic guitar led song that has a dark feel, about a man trying to find his way through life and Bravery (A Bottle Of Gin) includes more nice dobro on a slow moody song about a girl whose lover has gone off to war leaving her to find solace in the bottle. It is another sad, if topical, song that struck me as being a little over the top, with his excellent vocal wrapping itself around the song strengthening the emotions that didn’t really need strengtheing, although there is no doubt it is heartfelt.
Jarrod Dickenson seems to have found a nice balance to his songs. O.k. there are several occasions when the sentiments get close to being over the top but he has the ability to stay well out of the way of tweeness thanks to his ability to garner sympathy for and empathy with the characters that inhabit his songs. The production is excellent, with the vocals and the story in each song having pre-eminence over the instrumentation, showing a confidence by all involved parties in what he is trying to achive. The warmth of his vocals gets the best out of every song and with very minor reservations I wouldn’t be surprised at all if his reputation starts to grow even further.
http://jarroddickenson.com/fr_home.cfm