Haleigh Martin – Break the Levee
The very best people hardly ever leave their home town and, usually, when they do end up stuck in some hellhole of a major city, unable to leave and wondering why their life is slipping by them. These people are, typically, the best that you’d want to know if you find yourself in a jam, or if you need to borrow money. Consequently, they’re also some of the people most likely to be taken advantage of.
The folks who possessed some of those qualities, but got sick of coming in last on account of their good nature, tend to go out on the run, become art forgers, or join up with a rock band. They’re people like Haleigh Martin. They’ve realised what’s good and what’s wrong, and have enough sense to know that the world doesn’t function on good vibes and prayers alone.
The best stories are the ones where the hero and the villain might well be the same character. The best songs are the ones where you’re conflicted about the way you feel about the characters in them. Haleigh Martin’s “Break the Levee” is a modern blues track with a dance groove. It’s a track that cleverly uses blues riffs as undeniable hooks.
It’s also a song of woe or celebration. It’ll just depend on you and what you consider sins to decide which one it is. Just remember that the people who travel farthest can’t help but get some dirt on them along the way.
David Sven – Rats Beneath the Gospel
You can’t really have faith in everything without, at least, a tiny bit of doubt. That is, of course, both a commonly held truth and one of the reasons why Christian rock, for the most part, is simply terrible and routinely parodied.
But religious music, in many ways, sits at the very heart of this thing that some of us still call rock n’ roll. It all had to start somewhere, and, usually, this kind of music started with people chanting in unison. This much is something that David Sven can find common ground with the aforementioned Christian rockers.
But the chanting wasn’t always gleeful, thankful, and rarely came from people unburdened with troubles. It came from people who’d lived hard lives and who were desperate to do what it took to continue to live and lay some of those burdens down.
David Sven’s modern, neatly produced take on the blues and gospel, “Rats Beneath the Gospel,” is honest enough about faith to allow the doubts and the bitterness to show. This ain’t some story about some saint. This is a confession from a man who has seen trouble and whose raspy, soulful voice carries traces of those whenever it sings to the high heavens.
