Enjoyable and varied southern rock with good, memorable melodies.
The first track on this, Kyle Daniel’s debut album, is the hard rock, “hard man” song ‘Can’t Hold Me Back’ with him stating “I’m back, I’m bullet-proof, 10 feet tall/ Back, no backing down at all”. It makes you wonder what the album is going to be like. However, those of you who are not fans of heavy rock can be assured that this is not typical of what follows. There is an impressive range of Southern rock styles, with some excellent and memorable melodies and changes of pace throughout the album. The lyrics, which cover a range of subjects, are usually lighter than the above example, giving the album a “good-time rock n’roll” feeling.
Daniel is unsurprisingly, given the title of the album, from Bowling Green, Kentucky, a town about 100 miles north of Nashville. His father played banjo in a local bluegrass group, and his mother played bass and piano. Daniel started playing bars at a young age and won the Kentucky Blues Challenge at 17 years old. You can hear his great skill as a guitarist at various points on this album. Since then, he has spent a lot of time on the road honing his craft and must have met many musicians, a number of whom have either collaborated with him in co-writing the tracks on the album or contributed musically.
The second track, ‘Fire Me Up’, co-written with Will Hoge, is addressed to a woman the singer is returning to. It is back on familiar ground with a Lynyrd Skynyrd style lick and has strong backing vocals from country singer Maggie Rose. It all slows down next on ‘Runnin’ From Me’ with its catchy groove and bluesy slide guitar. This has a Chris Stapleton-like confessional “Thought I was running from the heart of the problem/But I was just running from me” and, in fact, Daniel’s voice sounds like Stapleton’s with its southern drawl. ‘A Man Like That’ is more soulful, with keyboard added, and has the most memorable lyric here where Daniel castigates a friend for how he has treated a woman. It has a slight feel of a Robert Cray track.
Musicians from the southern states often have a real nostalgia for their family and the place where they were brought up and will write about this in a way that, for example, it is hard to imagine British lyricists doing. Perhaps we are too buttoned-up. This is seen clearly in the next three tracks starting with ‘Southern Sounds’ featuring country singer Wendell Marvel. ‘Me And My Old Man’ with its Springsteen vibe is a tribute to his upbringing from his father: “He showed me wrong from right/Don’t back down from a fight”. ‘Summer Down South’, with The Cadillac Three is a fabulous rocker with a great chorus about partying in the hot months in the South.
More variation is seen with the acoustic guitar in ‘Following The Rain’ and the blues, including harmonica, in ‘Deep In The Woods’ where life out in nature is celebrated. ‘Divided We Are’ is a piano-based ballad that regrets the divisions between people. ‘Everybody’s Talkin’’ with Sarah Zimmerman of Nashville duo Striking Matches is a catchy tune that is a bit dismissive of discussion of issues “Talkin’ ain’t ever gonna make it any better”
The acid test of a record is whether the tracks’ melodies are strong enough to make you want to listen to them again. This certainly passes that test- the music here compares very favourably with, for example, a well-established group like Blackberry Smoke. Fans of Southern Rock will very much enjoy this.
