Customer Reviews

Distant Faces

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you like clean, honest singer/songwriter or Americana stuff, you'll be sure to like this one. Great dobro & train songs, plus the lyrical style of Gordon Lightfoot. What's not to like?

This CD is one of the best (if not THE best) one I've ever heard and purchased...and I've listened to and bought a LOT of 'em. Great storytelling songs, perfect instrumentation behind the lyrics, catchy melodies, poignant and meaningful tales of various characters going about their lives... Just plain outstanding. Steve Spurgin's mellow-toned tenor voice is always very pleasant to listen to, adding veracity and emphasis to each song he croons. He was a key member of an IBMA (Bluegrass Assoc.) award winning bluegrass group in the early-mid 90's, called "California" (along with Byron Berline, Dan Crary, John Hickman, & John Moore) that produced one of the all-time terrific bluegrass albums, "Traveler" from 1992. I was privileged to hear them perform live back then, and they were the best I've ever beheld in the realm of bluegrass. Steve did most all of the singing, while playing electric bass guitar (yeah, I know, "Bluegrass Heresy," but it was inspiring enough to get me to pick up one and learn to play it in a bluegrass band, which I do nowdays). Anyway, this album is a continuation of that band's sound and songwriting, and is absolutely top-notch! The songs include:
1. Muley Was a Railroad Man - an upbeat ditty about a sharecropper's son who worked as a porter on a pullman car long ago and displayed optimism and fascination with his work, with infectious enthusiasm. A wonderful epitaph for anyone.
2. She Always Smelled Like Lilacs - a pleasant ode to a grandmother from a childhood's fond recollection, a testament to a life well-lived.
3. Moonlight Motor Inn - probably the most outstanding ballad on the album, a haunting melody in minor key telling of how life and civilization can pass one by, literally, in the context of the proprietors of a sad, crumbling roadside inn that is bypassed by a new freeway, and time itself.
4. Love Bird - a light bluegrassy love song of love lost and a breaking heart.
5. The 2:10 Deadwood Train - a catchy western era song about Wild Bill Hickok, Deadwood, SD, and the last of it's former heyday and various characters.
6. Coffin Eddie - a light-hearted comedic folksong about a sardonic Colorado undertaker, with a peculiar sense of humor and quirks. (I'm acquainted here in Burnet with a mortician whose name is "Eddie", though the exact opposite in nature of the song character, who got a real charge out of this one when hearing it.)
7. Line 'Em In - a refrain describing a railroad line work crew's dedication to a job well done, with a dandy beat, phrasing, melody, dobro embellishment, and point.
8. Sidney - a wistful song concerning a mentally challenged youth that the singer had been familiar with, a lament of a life unappreciated, perhaps.
9. The Irish Sea Trilogy - a trio of Irish Folksongs woven together masterfully and melodically, with extraordinary musicianship and vocals, telling of seafaring related tales from the Isle of Green; again utilizing minor tones in perfect unison with the majors.
10. A Farmer's Son - this piece tells of a young man's determination to do what he truly feels fulfillment doing, instead of what maybe others believed he ought be working at. An illustration of following one's heart and desire in spite of what folks think you should. Another wonderful melody to remember, so well constructed and formed.
11. Sweet Sunny South - the only traditional tune of the lot from the public domain. A warm and thoughtful conclusion to the CD, splendidly done, by far the best version I've ever heard of this song.

The sad part of this album is that it has to end. Steve is at his best here. I cannot recommend any music recording in any genre any higher than this one. Steve Spurgin is a first class songwriter, singer, guitar and bass player, and deserves to be heard far more than most famous recording artists are. Thoroughly pleasant and enjoyable through repeated listenings. Here's hoping that he keeps recording and songwriting, even though this is him in his finest form.

This is real music, great lyrics and a... well, get you a copy while you still can... He's a great guy!!!
Janne/Sweden