I'm taken back to another time and place. The music of Bill Gibbs, Dennis Gurgul, and Lenny Solomon harks back to a time so long ago that country music was still called folk, or western, or perhaps hillbilly. It's old-time music that manages somehow to not be old-timey, generating instead a timeless quality. Lenny Solomon's vocals remind me most of John Prine, as does his writing, but there are also elements of the old country and western singers like Merle Travis, Stonewall Jackson, Roy Acuff or Doc Watson.
These songs tell stories. Some reach inside the narrator, bringing the personal to the universal so that any listener can understand. It's these songs that most remind me of Prine's writing. Others feature a more direct style of storytelling that brings to mind artists like Tom T. Hall and a whole tradition of country storytellers before him. In each song, Solomon's gentle, raspy voice carries just the right degree of emotion to bring his story into the listener's real world. One is reminded of songs like Hall's "Old Dogs, Children, and Watermelon Wine" or "Faster Horses."
Some of the songs on this release lean toward rock and roll but never really lose their old time country flavour. One song especially breaks the mold. "Firefly" rolls along slow, with soulful electric guitar underscoring Solomon's equally soulful vocal. While the country flavour is still present, the overall feel is more like Southern Rock. As I hear this song, I'm reminded ever so much of The Marshall Tucker Band's "Can't You See."
For the most part, the songs on Not Life Threatening range from the gentleness of a Motel 6 commercial through what I tend to call "cowboy music" to a sort of light country rock. Over all, on a quick listen, the set is quiet and enjoyable. Paying closer attention, the music and the lyrics show the quality that a lifetime of craft can add. The music combines interesting elements in sometimes quirky ways and the lyrics are tight and well formed to most effectively tell their stories.
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