Every now and then I have an artist recommended to me that I would never have heard about otherwise. Rusty Anderson is one of those. He deserves some serious attention for his latest album Born On Earth. With a mix of rocking guitars and some quieter pieces (including a strings intro for the title track), the album has a bit of everything.
At age 50, Anderson has played with some great acts including Elton John, The New Radicals, Willie Nelson, The Wallflowers, Stevie Nicks, and Paul McCartney. He was a part of the Paul McCartney band from 2001 until 2007. His first solo release, Undressing Underwater was released initially in 2003 and then re-released in 2005. His new album was just released in October 2009.
The title track, "Born On Earth," kicks off in an interesting way. A string intro that might be more expected in a classical music concert leads to some screaming guitars that blend into some serious rocking music.
But when you factor in the almost sarcastic approach to the world's woes that go along with the rock, I found myself really liking what I heard on lyrics like these... "all the ice is melting away / but its alright / cause all we gotta do is pray" and "we got folks in high places / down low as can be / and no matter how high we climb/ we're born on earth..."
We're all here, we might as well rock our way to the end, right?
The rest of the album floats between hard rock, blues, acoustic and slower guitar-layered tunes. Anderson has a gift for creating analogies in his songs that we can all identify with. Telling stories of loves lost and found and people trying to find the answers to all those questions we all have.
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