If ever an album was the antithesis of the modern plastic consumable repeatable computer-driven and studio “fixing” autotune banality of the modern music scene, it is this. Here we find Tod with a 1956 Guild F-20, and that along with his voice is it. Nothing else, just a slight reverb to provide additional warmth to the vocals. It is an album out of time, something which just shouldn’t exist in the current era where it is all about image over substance, personality over ability. Tod says, “I thought it was important to release an album unique to me and universal at the same time. We all have dialogues with people in our lives the way these songs unravel. yet, these are my personal imaginary conversations. It was very cathartic recording this album and I hope it inspires you to say the things you’ve always wanted to say to the people you love. The truth will set you free. This album is dedicated to the living. This is all we have. Cherish it and sacrifice everything to become the person you wish to be. No matter who you blame, you are the only person you have to live with. Fight like hell for freedom.”
His picking style is designed to provide just the right accompaniment to the voice as he tells story after story. It is highly melodic, and the recording, mixing, and mastering by Dan Emery is sublime. This is an album which needs to be played on headphones, as the listener is transported both in time and geography. Tod left school at 14, fell in love with the road, the needle and the bottle, and in one eighteen-month period had been in jail in four different states, and has a real story to tell. As well as his solo work he is also known as being the founder of The Lost Dog Street Band, whose album ‘Weight of a Trigger’ reached #5 in the Billboard Album Charts just six months before this was released, so I guess I am going to have to search that one out as well now.
Upbeat songs such as “O’dea” seem almost out of context, as here he plays more chords and strums, in a song which has real energy, but it is the slower more reflective numbers which really bring his music home. If modern music is plastic, then this is a slab of solid rich oak which carries the scars of its life for all to see but has been polished and loved so the scars are just another element of its beauty. Fans of the like of Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Neil Young and the like need to be aware there is someone else on the block who should be held in the same regard.
Rating: 10/10
