Dino Archon – Brother
There were murmurs of disconnect and outright hostility and a folk music festival that I visited recently. Tagged “folk,” the event attracted hopeless romantics and older devotees of the mixing of poetry and music. When the performers joined in for a finale, which included a song full of expletives, listeners nearly rioted. Surely, there was some other place where they could take these songs, they thought.
They’re right. The world is a violent place as much as always. But it is arguably a more stressful place than it has been in a long time. Most serious music reflects this tension and, in many ways, projects the aggressiveness of the world onto it. What the world needs now is love, sweet love? Well, maybe. It would certainly, ironically, turn out to be an alternative. As someone writing on a website called Alt77, I can stomach the irony.
Dino Archon might be angry, ready to give up, and even tempted to tell us all about how badly he has been disappointed. But, in true gentlemanly fashion, Archon chooses hope instead. “Brother” is a song of unity. It’s driven by Archon’s strong, soulful vocals. The arrangement brings to mind the mix 80s, a radio-friendly mix of blues, soul and pop. But there’s some grit in this as well. It’s enough to suggest that the road back to human understanding won’t be an easy one. And, yeah, in the year 2024, “Brother” is a bit of an outlier, alternative rock without the flannel or the screamed vocals.
Kenny Sharp – Virginia Slim
Songwriters and the public have a pretty basic understanding. The writers need to take ordinary things that don’t quite make sense, dress ‘em up in ribbons and dreams, and give ‘em back to the listeners in a finer, more mysterious form than how they found it. Songwriters can fail to deliver great tunes. But it’s when they destroy the mystery when they’re unable to make things seem extraordinary that the public no longer wants to listen.
How we’d love our favorite songwriters to write a song about us! How we’d love them to step into our lives and find some magic in the coffee mugs out of which we drink, the walks we take, and the cigarettes we smoke. The ones who are both lifelong music fans and hopeless romantics spend their entire lives hoping somebody will find them and write one of those songs about them.
Kenny Sharp sings beautifully and almost can’t help it. This ain’t like his bragging, but “Virginia Slim” isn’t merely inspired by Ray Charles-like jazzy ballads but captures some of that magic as well. But, for me, it’s the lyrics on which the big spotlight ought to shine. They’re clever in the way that the best songs made for the dreamiest of audiences should be. It’s a song about enjoying every puff, every love affair and every Virginian sunset.
