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Billy Talbot Band |
Billy
Talbot Band- Alive in the Spirit World
Alive in the Spirit World opens
strong with “The Way Life Is,” a roots rock song in the tradition of singer-songwriters
like Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and the man Billy Talbot has played
with, Neil Young. “The Way Life Is” is the most upbeat song on the
disc and probably the easiest to fit into a category.
The rest of the album is composed of songs
very similar to Joe Henry, vocally and musically. The
songs also remind me of Joe Henry because they have a sort of somber tone
and they are very spare. Billy Talbot definitely does not subscribe to
the “wall of sound” philosophy. I think that’s a good thing, because
it gets you to think about what he’s singing.
There is something else at work on this
album. The songs remind me of Joe Henry but the songwriting reminds
me of Townes Van Zandt. Each song is a sweeping story. Imagine
John Steinbeck’s work put to music and you have a pretty good idea of what
Billy Talbot is all about.
Billy Talbot is a talented songwriter,
but he is hard to peg. After listening to this album three or four
times, I have decided that Talbot defies genre. It’s hard to categorize
this album other than to say it’s good, especially for a rainy day.
One thing I’ll say for certain is that this is a heavy album. It
contains ten songs and weighs in at sixty-seven minutes. The shortest
song is 4:45 and tracks five and six are each longer than ten minutes.
I think it’s safe to say that Talbot wanted to do this his way, without
pressure from a label about how long the songs should be. This is
a solid, albeit long album that will fit right in with the other singer-songwriters
in your collection.
CD Info
Billy
Talbot Band- Alive in the Spirit World
Label: Sanctuary
Rating: 
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