Artist: Andrew Combs
Album: Canyons of My Mind
Bitrate: 225kbps avg
Quality: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.98.4 / -V0 / 44.100Khz
Label: Loose Music
Genre: Country
Size: 75.52 megs
PlayTime: 0h 44min 29sec total
Rip Date: 2017-05-13
Store Date: 2017-04-07
Track List:
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01. Heart of Wonder 3:51
02. Sleepwalker 4:20
03. Dirty Rain 3:12
04. Hazel 4:17
05. Rose Colored Blues 3:54
06. Better Way 4:16
07. Lauralee 3:55
08. Blood Hunters 3:19
09. Silk Flowers 4:09
10. Bourgeois King 5:05
11. What it Means to You 4:11
Release Notes:
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The follow-up to 2015's excellent All These Dreams, Canyons of My Mind delivers
another sepia-toned blast of high, lonesome, and heartfelt Americana that
dexterously weaves together the warmth of classic '70s singer/songwriters like
Ian Matthews and Don McLean with the cordial indie folk-rock of contemporaries
like the Avett Brothers and the Lumineers. Co-produced by Skylar Wilson and
Jordan Lehning, both of whom worked on his last record, the 11-track set
features some of Combs' strongest writing and crooning to date. Built around
some lofty themes -- Combs has cited sustainability as the narrative
through-line -- Canyons of My Mind feels personal, and that sense of intimacy
extends to the arrangements as well, which, outside of a few soaring moments,
are less overtly countrypolitan this time around. Combs cites the biographies of
Jim Harrison and Charles Wright as inspiration, and both writers' love for vast
open spaces and the transformative power of travel is evident throughout.
Wanderlust, spirituality, and ecology make for excellent bedfellows, and that
holy trinity fuels many of the album's finest moments. Lead single "Dirty Rain"
bemoans heartland sprawl ("flat and static paved in progress' name"), but its
dystopian vision is tempered by Combs' fluid falsetto and a late-track explosion
of strings that sounds like the heavens opening up to reseed. Rollicking opener
"Heart of Wonder" looks both inward and outward, marveling at the elusiveness of
beauty in all its guises, while the rail-riding anthem "Rose Colored Blues,"
with its cycling shakers and rolling strings, plays like an updated version of
Glen Campbell's "Gentle on My Mind." It's compelling stuff, and Combs imbues all
of his characters, no matter how lost they may be, with humanity and humor, and
it's that knowing nod to vagabond life that makes Canyons of My Mind so easy to
get lost in.