A trip out west, an exploration of the American Dream, and an investigation of what that means right now.
As he tells us, “I’ll worry about yesterday tomorrow; I’m trying to get through today.” ‘Western Soul’ makes the perfect accompaniment to today. An experienced singer, songwriter, producer, and engineer, Adelman has sculpted out the sound of America on ‘Western Soul’ and seems to have captured where its old spirit sits in a contemporary world. Recorded at his own studio, simply called The Woods, the album holds an essence of time gone by, of musicians that look to the past to push forward. With musical comparisons and nods towards John Prine and Woody Guthrie, Adelman’s West is inspired by the greats.
On album opener, ‘Oh Mama, Won’t You Take Me Back Home’, that West is in sight immediately: “Been lost in the West where the earth meets the sky/ Where some come to live, some come to die”. With a group of talented musicians working on the album, moments of musical magic quickly paint a Western landscape. An immediate image of the imagined West emerges with some slide resonator guitar from Doug Pettibone, the feeling of a warm evening on a front porch emerging, as classic as if it were being played by a cowboy with the back of a switchblade.
The slow and sincere ‘Vagabond Shoes’ is a treasure. Sitting at the heart of the album, these are the shoes that fit Adelman best. With a little gratitude and respect to Woody Guthrie, this is the kind of song that defines an artist, their style and their artistic ability – for Adelman, he brings that vagabond character to life, lyrics as deceptively simple as “They met as strangers, parted as friends/ Bound for fortune and glory where rusty rail ends” sinking beneath the skin and into the heart.
With his ‘One of a Kind’ tribute to John Prine, it becomes evident that Adelman finds his inspiration in the stories of the greats, taking advice from them and shaping it into his very own words. “He has a song for each season/ Two for each day of the week” – and perhaps nothing defines that companionability that Prine brought so many with as few words as Adelman has managed on this track.
Where the singer-songwriter shines brightest is on his simple yet poetically profound tracks, as reassuringly beautiful as a sunset holding onto the day’s warmth. However, he steps into classic honkytonk territory when joined by Hope Dunbar on ‘Opposites Attract’, a duet with a tense yet playful George Jones/Tammy Wynette spirit. As he brings in a mariachi-style sound on ‘Trying To Get Through Today’, the album might wander just a step too far outside of its sweet spot.
A confident album with moments of immense wisdom, reflection and observation. For an hour, it’s inevitable that you’ll be swept up and lost in Adelman’s Western world. Perhaps a couple of listens are needed to properly unpack some of the sentiments, but a sense of comfort accompanies the stories – Adelman is clearly an experienced teller of tales.
At times, it does feel as if it toes the line of cliché, a checklist of Western figures and narratives finding their way into the songs – but maybe that just means Adelman got it right? He captured the Western Soul the way it always has been, and even in an unsteady world, always will be.
