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MP3 Stephen Shepherd - Daylight On the Rise
10 MP3 Songs in this album (33:01) !
Related styles: COUNTRY: Country Folk, COUNTRY: Traditional Country
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Details:
“Daylight On The Rise” is singer/songwriter Stephen Shepherd’s fourth CD in five years, and it is perhaps his most ambitious. Like his previous album that charted for 62 weeks on the U.S. Roots Music Chart and peaking at #21, Shepherd’s “Daylight On The Rise” hunkers down between the folk and country genres. The title song, “Daylight On The Rise,” addresses an individual awakening of the country spirit by using farm images and the sun rising on God’s earth. It is a powerful song that at first calibrates an imperfect distance and then builds to a power finale, as if a soul has been alienated and then saved. In particular, “The Decision Won’t Be You” strikes a touching raw and Celtic chord with a lamenting Appalachian fiddle bemoaning a long-suffering and ill-fated love affair. “Willie’s Money,” a spoof about the feast or famine nature of country music, imagines a sole proprietor of the Nelson State Bank, while “Peachy Keen Cowboy” recognizes the superficial and marketing nature of the music industry. “California Beachin’ Blues,” written in the dead of a brutal Midwest winter, epitomizes the braggart who threatens to leave Chicago for a warmer clime but won’t, although he’s reminded by a friend that he has nothing to lose. Hence, even when you have nothing to lose - change is still difficult.
Perhaps the most notable lyric is found on “Uzis In the Barn,” a raging bluegrass satire about U.S. farmers preparing for a terrorist attack on their farms. It’s a tongue-in-check look at that improbable possibility and what farmland preparation would be necessary. ‘Why Didn’t We Get There” uses automobile metaphors to describe a romantic relationship deemed by the song’s narrator as destined to crash. By using a chord progression found in classic 1950’s car crash songs, Shepherd’s satire takes the car crash theme one step closer by metaphorically joining the car with its passengers. ‘Let’s Talk About Love,” a breezy wedding song (a.k.a. The Eagles), captures the culmination of everyone showing up at a wedding by stacking up romantic images to talk about the bride and groom’s romantic courtship prior to the wedding day. The romantic images are universal, thus making the couple’s romantic courtship ours and guaranteeing our own arrival. “Crystal Kingdoms,” perhaps the most cerebral song on the album, is a haunting tune about loneliness and the risks of pursuing love. In particular, like so many instrumental attributes on the album, the raw mandolin solo adds a plaintive and minimalist touch that exacts the imperfect nature of most relationships. And finally, “Road Cowboy” dispels the romantic myth of trucking by pealing back the coarseness of it being a full-time lifestyle. Trucking is a lonely and sometimes dangerous occupation, which is portrayed by the isolated and sheering guitar, the single vocal accompaniment, and lyrics like “desperation doesn’t take time; it just takes need.”
Once again, Shepherd’s cerebral approach to country music on “Daylight On The Rise” is a welcomed change. It’s true; Stephen Shepherd is a thinking man’s country music artist, and “Daylight On The Rise Album” is ambitious proof of it.
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