6 Years after Release, Still Getting Great Reviews

 

Back to the Dirt – 6 Years after Release, Still Getting Great Reviews

Back to the Dirt – Brian Gladstone ** Independent ** 15 tracks – The songs of Brian Gladstone are quiet and unassuming. They’re comfortable songs that feel like they’ve been around a long time, like an old easy chair or your favourite slippers. This is music that brings fond remembrance of the Sixties yet often seems to reach back as far as the Twenties. This is old-time music but it’s not old-timey, drawing as it does from the mainstream of 20th Century American popular music. The words, on the other hand, come from the realities of 21st Century life and tend to speak largely to a hometown Toronto audience. The overall effect is warm and cozy, the songs bringing a homey and somehow timeless sense of comfort to the listener.

Gladstone’s activist roots show through in several of the lyrics, addressing social issues with as much fervour as such peaceful music will allow. Other lyrics demonstrate that Gladstone is an active observer of the human condition, commenting on lifestyle and personal relationships as they appear in this fast paced digital age.

Gladstone has a sweet, soft voice reminiscent of a Will Millar, Harry Nilsson, Keith Carradine, Gerry Marsden, or any number of pop and folk singers of the mid-century. This is the music not of a bar but of a coffee house or a folk club attended by aging hippies. Whatever rage had ever been in this voice has mellowed with age but may sit just below the surface, waiting to catch the listener by surprise. Even at his quietest, Gladstone hints at the protest singer still alive within him.

In a time when songwriters seem to reach for the universal or recede into the deeply internal and personal, Gladstone is a community artist. While both the universal and the personal can be found in any of his songs, at their root is a deep sense of the home town. His songs on this release are about Toronto and many make strong, specific references to such Toronto locales as the Don Valley Parkway and Lake Ontario. Even where the lyric may not be directly about Toronto, it always seems to look at the world beyond from a Toronto perspective. These are songs made for the home town crowd, yet they can also be understood, if at a different level, by listeners everywhere.

The instrumentation here is simple and acoustic, with quietly balanced arrangements to complement and support Gladstone’s vocals ably filled out by back-up vocalist Bonnie Gladstone. As musicians, Gladstone, Ralph Hassell, and Daniel Schlagbaum bring a bright, cheerful ambience to these recordings. Even without the vocals, these songs would be a pleasure to hear.

Bonnie Gladstone’s backing vocals bring to these songs a sweetness reminiscent of Montreal’s Sixties pop group The Bells. “Children Sleep in Snow” is just one example where this sound comes through. With a pretty old- fashioned melody and subdued folkie jingle jangle instrumentation, this song invites the comparison. Bonnie Gladstone’s breathy vocals and the brief spoken line at the end bring memories of songs like “Stay Awhile” from The Bells.

“Icy Northern Town” starts out with a “Puff the Magic Dragon” sort of sound but soon morphs into something that sounds more like the songs of Peter Sarstedt. The two styles interweave throughout this song, giving it an eery dreamlike sense of songs heard from far away on a car radio, one station sometimes slipping in under the other. The sweet female backing vocals only serve to enhance this effect.

While most of these songs evoke a quiet back porch style that would be comfortable in the Twenties or the Sixties, one stands out as the sort of Sixties pop that pre-figured the alternative musics of later decades. “You Know How” features Gladstone punching out his words with nasal tones over a jumpy little tune. I find myself wishing this number was a bit longer. It would also be good to hear this one performed with a full band featuring strong bass and rocking drums.

There are two pieces on this release not written by Gladstone but both demonstrating his affinity for the old music. “Lengthy Diatribe” is a medley of four tunes originally performed by country and blues artists like Doc Watson and Blind Blake. A listener may visualize some rural guitarist leaning back on his chair on the front verandah and just picking away at these songs in the waning light of dusk. Reverend Gary Davis’ “Hesitation Blues” has much the same effect, only more so. This is a quiet performance with subdued vocals over guitar that’s relaxed even when it’s up-tempo. Both these tracks demonstrate Gladstone’s considerable skill and unique style on the guitar.

While the music of Brian Gladstone may make comfortable listening, many of the songs carry a seditious undertone that wants not to prick the listener’s conscience but to seduce it. Behind the sweet songwriter is an activist with something to say about the social issues of the day. For both its old fashioned, slightly countrified sound and the words, which bear a listen or even a read, Back to the Dirt would make an interesting addition to any collection of contemporary Canadian music.

To learn everything you ever wanted to know about Brian Gladstone and even more, be sure to visit Gladstoneville. To hear samples of Brian Gladstone’s songs, including thirteen of the songs on this release, go here. Unfortunately, these samples are only available in RealAudio format so not available to those of us who prefer the more universally playable mp3 format.

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