Music Review: Hal Ketchum - One More Midnight

Aside from being the title song from his soon-to-be-released album, "One More Midnight" could be a testament to the last fifteen plus years of Hal Ketchum's career. It pays tribute to life on the road, something he is no stranger to as he launches a five week U.K. tour this month to be followed by an extensive tour of the states. One More Midnight, the latest album from featured artist Hal Ketchum, had its U.K. release on February 12 and will be hitting U.S. shelves in March or April.

This, his ninth release, stays pretty true to the heart and soul of Hal Ketchum – songs that are crafted and woven, many of them intricate stories. Set to a traditional country sound, the lyrics themselves often lean more toward the folk genre as we often get rich and meticulous details of a character's life composed in three and a half minute songs. Of course there is always an exception to the standard rules, and on One More Midnight that is "Poor Lila's Ghost." The stand-out track of the album, it chimes it at nearly fifteen minutes and twenty-six verses long.

In a recent interview I asked Ketchum about playing the song live and how audiences are receiving it. He responded, "It was interesting to play that live. The response was really good and I was really happy with it. People were willing to sit and listen to it… I just thought it was worth it. It was worth recording. It's such a journey; I really wanted it to make the record."

And a journey is exactly what the song is. Those twenty-six verses follow a man as he tries to shed the memory of Lila and are backed with acoustic guitar and banjo with the occasional appropriately placed cry of a fiddle and hauntingly spoken words by Tony Joe White. While it's appropriately placed as a centerpiece, in the dead middle of the album, a Hal Ketchum album wouldn't be complete without a couple of sweet love songs and a handful of lighthearted and up-tempo tracks.

Article Author: Connie Phillips

Wife, mother, aspiring novelist, and music editor at BC Magazine, Connie Phillips spends most of her time in a fantasy land of her own creating. In reality, she writes about music, television, and the process of writing, when she's not cheering on her kids at equestrian events. …

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