Sean Rowe New Lore
(2017, Three River/Anti- Records)
Sean Rowe's voice combines the gravitas of Johnny Cash with the tenderness of Leonard Cohen. The forebodings of an impending hurricane with the humanity of the aftermath. There is no escaping the deep baritone and vulnerable vernacular in the aptly titled New Lore. We are audience to a wonderful collection from a sensitive road warrior, of sad life, of wonderful love, of old beginnings and new endings. The instrumentation is superbly balanced. Subtle when appropriate, an enamored and enchanting partner. The horn hints, the piano dabs, the guitar dances, they move, they stick. All leaving room for that voice and those lyrics and no want of containment. Chamber folk steers into full-on R&B and then rests comfortably in the land of desert campfire ballads a la Alejandro Escovedo and Willie Nelson. See Sean Rowe live on November 18 for a hometown show at the Hangar on the Hudson in Troy. SeanRowe.net.
