We’ve all heard the news. Hell, you could probably choose to hide out in the jungles of Central America, living off of rainwater and giant avocados, and somebody would make the time to come in every morning to tell you the desperate state of affairs that the world finds itself in. There’s someone ready to stimulate your anxiety at every turn.
But, I wouldn’t worry just yet. It’s not that I’m an optimist, but I’ve just promised my family that the moment I’ll start making plans for Armageddon is the moment that young, creative types stop meeting in small garages and basement turned into rehearsal spaces with the view of finding the right key, the optimate chord changes, and the words that, when heard by the world, will make it feel a little better.
Having just heard Singing River’s EP, “Shoutin’ Good Time,” I’m relieved to say that my 24 Points for End of Days plan can sit in the bottom drawer a while longer. Just listen to the chaos and harmony of the record’s opening track, “Lost by the River” and tell that you seriously got anything to fear.
In fact, Singing River isn’t just taking musical inspiration from the folksy, country-inspired rock n’ roll of the late 1960s. The band does something even braver, and they choose to borrow a bit of optimism from it as well.
How are you gonna hear all the bad news while you play “Shoutin’ Good Time,” the title track, at maximum volume? And, volume, indeed, is something that the song warrants. It’s a song about being confronted with all of modern USA’s burdens – wealth, power, and strategies to maintain those. It’s also a song about, instead, choosing to lean into the greatest thing that the country gifted the world – the party music called “rock n’ roll.”
And, if by this point you’ve figured out that Singing River’s don’t much mind being referred to as folk-rock luddites, “I Thought I Heard Bob Dylan Say,” with its nod to “Rainy Day Women,” sets the record straight.
Where does it leave us? Living in the past, and regretting very little of it. We all must know how to play our parts, and the rootsy, rocking “King of the Minor Leagues” shows that Singing River know very well where they’re needed and appreciated. “Shoutin’ Good Time” is old-fashioned, fun, and hopeful that there’ll be plenty more worth celebrating.
Is record-making on the way to becoming a lost art? The release of records certainly doesn’t cause people to line up in front of stores and spill out into the streets quite the way they used to do. Still, for a certain segment of listeners, communicating with their favourite artists through records has never been more important.
Perhaps records will have the fate of book printing. Nobody expects it to disappear, and not even the people most passionate about it expect it to become the concern of most everyday people. In fact, you can likely count on a couple of things for both of them – an intelligent, niche audience to love it and an intelligent, creative type to make them.
Singing River’s EP “Shoutin’ Good Time,” even as a digital release, feels purposely designed as an old-fashioned communique about the world and what’s left good in it. The format and the sound are the message. Singing River seem to believe that once upon a time, things were just a bit more in focus. The band is using its rootsy Americana to try and, at least for four songs, put the whole thing back together.
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