Dusty Road To Beulah Land

Drew Nelson | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 21, 2009)
• Original Release Date: 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Waterbug
• ASIN: B001RPAYH6
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #204,283 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Highway 2

2. Waiting for the Sun

3. Stranger

4. Grandmother Moon

5. True and Fine

6. Farmer's Lament

7. Half A Mile Down

8. Raindance

9. Hello

10. Molly's Home

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Album with a Big Heart from an artist who's Star is Rising, June 26, 2009

By 

Mr. Jeff Manning (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dusty Road To Beulah Land (Audio CD)

I've been listening to this a little over a week now and haven't gone a day without it. It's Americana folk with influences from Dylan to Greg Brown to Peter Mulvey to acoustic Springsteen. But this album is special as it is a rare eclipse of stellar songcraft with heartfelt lyrics combined with excellent musicians and production. I've played this on a studio reference system and you can hear all the wonderful details of Drew's guitar (which he built,)the slide guitar, fiddle, banjo, piano and even a cello I thought.

Drew's music is Americana, but it's not a whiskey and beer back chaser album, rather a slower sipping single malt, preferably with the window open on a warm summer evening. Lyrically, Drew's Michigan roots are apparent as the brine he's steeped in...and anyone who knows the beauty of gravel roads and trout streams of backroads Michigan and the Great Lakes area will feel a resonance ("Highway 2"). Drew aims high, with themes of the beauty of everyday life ("Grandmother Moon") and the pitfalls as well ("Stranger"). Throughout the album, there is a reverence for the beauty around us that shines through with conviction, but this is not an album of sentimental platitudes, but terse sketches of characters and stories that let an understated heart in the right place shine through. The heavier themes give ballast to the album, but presented almost casually. Drew's characters are regular people facing unwelcome changes, but are not beaten down, but hopeful despite uncertainty.

Production is also understated...druming is a very light touch, the slide guitar's heavenly and other strings and piano bolster and color the strength of Drew and his guitar. Over repeated listening, I'm still surprised by how new sounds continue to reveal themselves.

Ultimately, this album is Americana folk, but it makes me feel the way I do when listening to albums like Van Morrison's Astral Weeks or when I sat in the Gospel tent at the New Orleans Jazz Festival...eliciting a emotional wellspring of hope and gratitude in the face of an uncompromising and all too often impersonal world.

And the best part is that this is only Drew's second album. Judging by the trajectory since 2004's Immigrant Son (no slouch effort there either), Dusty Road to Beulah Land promises a long and rewarding career for Drew and his listeners. It's only been out for a couple of months, but I have a feeling it'll be around for a long long time.

3.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Americana songwriter;CD has a few production weaknesses., May 3, 2009

By 

Steven I. Ramm "Steve Ramm "Anything Phon... (Phila, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dusty Road To Beulah Land (Audio CD)

Singer-Songwriter Nelson writes modern "story songs". Think of them as short stories with music. All but one of the ten tracks on this CD are four minutes or longer and three pass the five minute mark.

There are some wonderfully crafted stories out of today's headline - "Stranger" tells of Nelson's returning to his hometown of Detroit after the decline of the auto industry, where he sings "I've walked these streets a thousand times". In "Farmer's Lament", he tells of a farmer watching as "the country turns to subdivision". These two, along with the lead-off track, "Highway" (about how we need hope for the next generation), are the standout tracks. There are two songs paying tribute to the Native Americans.

Two tracks are not up to the rest of the album. On "Half A Mile Down" the production sounds like Nelson recorded it in a hole. (Half a Mile down?) and has lots of echo. The final track, "Molly's Home" has a stark droning instrument, which I couldn't identify - even with instruments listed on the CD sleeve - which overpowers the vocals. Before the song was over I found myself hitting the "skip button".

Nelson is, not only a fine wordsmith, but also an excellent guitar player and the instrumentation on all the tracks, except for the one noted above, gives the album a nice "Americana" feel.

I'm looking forward to hearing more from Nelson in the future.

Steve Ramm

"Anything Phonographic"