REVIEW: Mike Dalton Band - Glider

(This review is based on a listen of eight of the 18 tracks on the disc.)

It is rare today to find out something meaningful and sincere about a singer through his music. Even more rare is when the tunes offer such a smooth ride, as on "Glider."

It used to be music was more than general platitudes about romance, love and fighting for your right to par-tay, and at least partly about presenting confessions. You listen to Mike Dalton and the band and you're swept away, not in morass of morbidity, but a life story in 18 chapters.

Dalton offers the complexity of voice that comes with anyone even mildly worth listening to - in casual conversation or in your headphones; on the bar stage or blasting around your apartment.

You gotta love yourself
You got no help in singing alone sometimes
Sometimes we don't mind

But I'm a father ...."

That from "College Avenue" which comes after "Goober" - a song that features a spoken introduction by Dalton's young son. And maybe it's just me and my absent and now dead father, but songs about fathers who love being a parent take me somewhere else in my head.

The first few intro phrases of "Story of my Life" echo Michelle Shocked's "Anchorage," - another tale with real life characters. The melody drives the song in a happy reflection of a life lived within his means.

Looking through my pictures I see all the ones I love.
How I miss my mother who I never gave enough
Now I really need her
I'm in trouble once again
I can't make it through it
She'd say, Michael, yes, you can

... ...
I put away the bottle once for two days in a row
I'm giving up Sambuca** too, after one more show
It's such a long long way to go
And running out of gas
Most of my decisions come and bite me in the ass.

Music should be about having something to say - unless it's about getting you to move your body and dance.

It's hard to believe this is the group's fourth album - and Dalton has been in bands since 1983 and into music since he was 6 years old. The revealing truths that come out, one would think, would have shown themselves earlier on in a career.

The band has a reputation as an overworked cover band around New Jersey - but only as a vehicle for getting in their own lick and kicks. And if I only had the cover list to go by, from the Foo Fighter's "All My Life" to "Don't Be Cruel" by Elvis, I would know they'd be my brand of beer.

Article Author: Temple Stark

A graphic designing wordsmith, with a decade-plus career in community journalism behind me. Take a mean photo, have a new camera, and have been riding the wave of Twitter for more than a year.

Visit Temple Stark's author page — Temple Stark's Blog