Here’s the absorbing new song from Colorado-based Blues and Americana singer-songwriter David Starr. ‘Lonesome Train’ is a moody song based around pulsing energy and raw, compelling guitar work. It’s a classic Johnny Burnette track, brought up to date with forceful percussion and electric guitar. There’s a real sense of urgency in the song’s insistent rhythms and swift, dynamic solos, matching the relentless movement of a speeding train. The cover has been a regular song in Starr’s live set. Starr explains: “Erik Stucky and I added this song to our setlist one night quite by accident. It popped into my head during a gig, and I gave Erik a few second’s notice before tearing into it. He loved playing his lightspeed mandolin licks, and audiences really seemed to dig the energy!”
The accompanying video features grainy footage that helps deliver a real storytelling feel. Starr says: “This video is for the second single from the album, ‘Must Be Blue’, and is another I loved working on with Jason Denton, who does all of my visuals. I think he perfectly captured the urgency of the song and made a great representation of the grittiness and soul you hear on the track. I first heard this cover playing in a band in Colorado, and ever since, it has been an integral part of my live set. It always brings the energy!”
A prolific songwriter, Starr has released over eleven studio albums to date. Recently inducted into the Northwest Arkansas Musicians Hall of Fame, Starr delivers his first full-length blues album in the appropriately titled “Must Be Blue”, out on Quarto Valley Records, a mixture of classic blues covers and original compositions. Alongside Starr and various GRAMMY, CMA, and ACM award-winning musicians, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame star John Oates supplies backing vocals, helping to bring these rousing blues numbers to life. The album follows the success of blues singles from Starr’s previous album. He says of his love for the blues: “Blues music has always made me feel at home somehow. Perhaps because it was some of the first music I heard as a young musician looking for his muse in gritty little clubs in Northwest Arkansas. Maybe it has to do with the timeless themes of love and loss, struggle and strife, the loud electrics, the way people can’t help but tap their feet when they hear it. Whatever the reason, playing blues-influenced songs always centres me in a way that no other music does. When I moved to the mountains of Colorado, my influences expanded to Americana and roots, and acoustic guitar became a muse of its own. This album is my version of a blues record, what you might call ‘Bluesicana’ – the grooves and electrics are there, but so is a mandolin. Call it coming home, full circle.”
Check out David Starr’s self-styled ‘Bluesicana’, an engrossing blend of traditional blues arrangements, acoustic guitar and mandolin, with electric guitar and soulful vocals – it’s a fine, fresh take on the blues.
