Thomas Rottenbücher – Pale Comes The Morning
There seem to be two types of heroes that the media has a great time romanticizing and putting up on a pedestal. The first is the winner, a natural fit. This part is reserved for those that manage to innovate, glide through adversity, find reasons to smile and look forward. Oh, how movies and the music industry love those!
The second ones are the losers, the anti-heroes, the charming hard-cases. Media has a particular love affair with them as well. However, the narrative around them usually involves some kind of redemption arc, or, at the very least, a story in which they don’t exactly lose but manage to get away without having to suffer the consequences of their actions.
The sad truth is that almost all that lead the kind of reckless lives that journalists and scriptwriters love talking about, end up in a bad way. Thomas Rottenbücher’s Pale Comes The Morning doesn’t romanticize the antihero, so much as humanizing him. Behind a classic folk-guitar backing, the songwriter narrates the story of losing big, living on the edge, and feeling frightened of falling off it. The truth ain’t always wearing shades and skinny jeans.
Walter Longscott – Looking for you
Rock music can be very forgiving on those that have started out with a plan. Most don’t have any sort of compass to guide them, mind you. They might end up, best case scenario, singing in front of a bunch of buffoons on a television talent show and getting nasty feedback for their skills of singing karaoke.
But, for those who’ve realized that doing impressions of Michael Jackson or Bon Jovi isn’t really in the cards for them because of vocal limitations, a plan to overcome this could put them in a better position than their more ambitious fellow singers.
Folks like Bob Dylan and Mark Knopfler have certainly had a tone to offer to art and songwriting specifically. Pristine vocals were not among those things. Instead, they built characters. Dylan is the old gold prospector with a voice soaked in whiskey. Knopfler is the wise, barfly, voices soaked in whiskey and guitar permanently in hand.
If you like your vocals soaked in whiskey and your guitar lines sharp and crispy, Walter Longscott might just tickle your fancy. Looking for you is a song of experience, built on a classic foundation of folk and on smooth six-string licks.
folk
