Customer Reviews

O Come Look at the Burning (Dig)

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4 star:		(1)
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Playing Time - 50:31 -- His first album in five years (since "Down to the Well"), Louisiana native Kevin Gordon just up and felt the musical urge to get back in the studio. Recorded live in a home studio in east Nashville, the band's music captures the same impulsiveness and capriciousness that characterizes his life. His shows can often have the same great power and passion.

"O Come Look at the Burning" has a raw and raucous personality. There are ten new original songs, and all lyrics are included in the CD jacket. Charles "Wigg" Walker, an early 1960s Nashville R & B star, appears as a guest vocalist on "Flowers." The band's rhythmic foundation is built around guitars, bass, drums and Hammond organ. On a few pieces with R&B influence, it might have been very interesting to consider some saxophone in the mix. Gordon covers Eddie Hinton`s "Something Heavy" and Willie Dixon`s "Crazy Mixed-Up World" (originally recorded in 1959 by Little Walter). The former may be the best statement about Kevin Gordon's perspective on life, sanity, and need for something heavy to keep moving in the right direction. His original music on "O Come Look at the Burning" is a bit abstract too. It's a little mysterious, but the essence of the singer/songwriter's music shows an ardent appreciation for colliding and conflicting forces. In his on-line blog, Gordon makes reference to similarities in the rodeo arena: "God and country, sin and redemption, man and animal." (Joe Ross, Roseburg, OR.)

Five years since Kevin's last release is too long a wait for this excellent roots rocker. Ever since his debut "Carnival Time" (...)never made a disc anything less than great. This beauty kicks off where his last album left off. No filler, just great songwritng, and greasy guitar work that makes you wanna drop everything, slug down a bottle of bourbon, and rock out!

Kevin is a literary alchemist who is able to conjure up unforgettable images with his lyrics. On top of those lyrics he layers stunningly sharp guitar work that belies his label as "singer/songwriter". If you like bluesy roots-rock with the emphasis on rock you will love this CD. I have not been able to get it out of my CD player since it arrived in the mail.

From the first song 'Watching the Sun Go Down'(with Jennifer Niceley's slightly spooky background vocals) to the end with the wigged-out balls-to-the-wall 'Crazy Mixed Up World' this CD is just absolutely STUNNING! Kevin Gordon has now come out with his masterpiece. I thought 'Down to the Well' would be hard to top but this CD does and then some. I've seen Kevin live now several times and I think this is the CD he was born to make. The rock songs are scorching and the few ballads are, as usual, extremely pretty. His songwriting is better than ever, in fact I don't think there's a better songwriter out there. This is the easily the best CD I've heard in a long time. Unbelievable stuff.

As an English KG fan from across the Atlantic I was really pleased to recieve 'Oh come look at the burning' from Amazon - KG's albums are hard to find here in the UK! What a great album it is - brilliant songs wonderfully delivered, he knows how to take snapshots of (American) life and craft them into memorable words and tunes, (the two covers are also brilliantly delivered).

Like 'Cadillac Jack's' and 'Down to the Well' before I have trouble keeping 'The Burning' off my hi-fi and out of my head for very long - it's just too good. If you haven't heard any of KG's work before, and you can relate to Guthrie, Williams, Presley, Baez, Dylan, Cash, Earle and Crowell then try this Album, (and the other two mentioned above) because they are all in there somewhere !

But his voice is something else !!

Kevin Gordon has a rich baritone voice that reminds me of a piece of driftwood or a weathered shell one would find on the beach: there's a smooth and simple elegance to it but it hints of storms that have tossed it about a good deal. There are moments of delicious eloquence in "O, Come Look at the Burning" that make one pause and slightly shudder. It is beauty that is almost too great to endure.

Kevin Gordon's songs are drenched with the Blues of his homeland. But they also carry a very particular spirit of American life that is rustic, rough and sweet. His lyrics are among the most evocative of any artist's today:
"Black branches tangle a blue sky
Wrinkled face and a glass of rye
watching the sun go down."

For sheer poetry and aural bliss, you should definitely check out this disc!

Fine music. This is a swampy blend of blues, rock, country and soul. Very good song writing, musicianship and singing. I had never heard this artist before listening to this CD but I am very impressed. Somewhere in his music, I hear Dylan in about 1967. Good stuff, buy it!

I'm not crazy about the production. Very muddy. I think DOWN TO THE WELL stands up much better.