For a man who has seen more scrapes than the top of ‘Paco’, his beloved but well-worn Gibson J45 guitar, Tim Easton is setting out on his own personal ‘Real Revolution‘.
Releasing the latest track from his upcoming album, ‘You Don’t Really Know Me‘, the Nashville-based singer-songwriter seems to be at a turning point in his long career. “I wrote this tune while on tour when I was stuck in a loop of despair,” Easton says. “I had experienced one too many breakdowns in communication and was feeling like I needed to start all over again, which I did. The real revolution is the one that can take place inside all of us.”
A longtime warrior of the road, Easton has played alongside greats like Townes Van Zandt and Lucinda Williams. After twenty-plus years of relentless touring, Easton’s new album finds him counting the cost of that wandering lifestyle and realising he needed to make some serious changes in his life and priorities. ‘Real Revolution‘ is his statement of intent, setting out the album’s themes of rebirth, redemption, and personal rediscovery.
With Easton’s soft rasp of a voice at the fore, this classic Americana track manages the neat trick of combining some footstomping go-forward provided by the guitar and upright bass, with the haunting presence of a mellotron that somehow seems to bring into the mix the shadows of troubled past times. It really works well. The promo is a simple animation that effectively pulls a similar trick. Strong black lines and uncomplicated shapes fluidly move against soft coloured backgrounds. Director and animator Maxwell Sebastian, deftly reflects the themes of the song but manages to avoid being too ‘on the nose’, thereby still allowing the lyrics to land the big punches.
As the song says, “You have to be willing to change up the fight // Admit your mistakes in what has been said and done // Then step into the light of the real revolution.” Easton sounds like he’s in the right kind of place to embrace these changes… so best of luck to him. If ‘Real Revolution‘ is any indication, things are looking good for this radical new Tim Easton.
