Folk music is alive and well. Simon Petty has resurrected the sound of 1970s English folk music by merging his smoky voice with strong piano licks and guitar. Each song seems to merge a melancholy feel with powerful melodies to evoke an emotional connection. Petty also uses unique sounds like the beat of windshield wipers in "Sleeping in the Car" to provide an organic quality to the tracks.
But at the heart of each song, is his lyrics and his voice. The voice is hard to describe without using words like "smoky" and "husky", but I would most compare it to Peter Gabriel in some respects. Not that Gabriel ever did this style of music, but I think Petty has the same English-born quality that Gabriel has.
Add to that the amazing guitar work and I was in seventh heaven. As an amateur guitar player, I am always listening for picking patterns and transitions and Petty's style evokes some of the mystique of folk legends like Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot, Simon and Garfunkel, and James Taylor.
Almost 10 years ago now, Petty came to America with the quartet Minibar to record an album with T Bone Burnett and Universal Records. Though that album, Road Movies didn't do well commercially, Minibar stayed in California and made two more albums, touring with bands like Willco, Teenage Fanclub, The Jayhawks, and The Wallflowers.
The Sea, The Sea is Petty's first solo album, produced by Seth Rothschild and recorded between Texas and Brooklyn. The CD includes eleven great songs, but I found myself gravitating towards tracks like "State of the Union Address" and "A Part of the River" for their strong guitar parts and stirring lyrics.
"State of the Union Address" is a beautiful song about letting a girl down easily, but contains some imagery about the cruelty of such an act. "I know it hurts like / Cigarette burns ... but you'll see / you'll see / it's all gonna fade / eventually..." The guitar work reminds me a bit of David Wilcox with the simple, yet moving baseline that keeps the song chugging along with a light feel even with the heavy subject matter.
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