This singer-songwriter was born in Virginia before moving to Nashville where he has spent most of his adult years in honing the craft of song-writing. This release includes the talents of saxophonist Bobby Keys (Rolling Stones, John Lennon, Elvis Presley, Joe Cocker, Eric Clapton), Audley Freed (Black Crowes, Sheryl Crow, Dixie Chicks, Peter Frampton), and backing vocalist Regina McCrary (Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Stevie Wonder) just to name a few.
So, quite a collection of experienced players to give this release some gravitas. The sleeve lists a total of 13 musicians with an additional 7 singers on backing vocals and apparently the recording took 18 months to complete; so money no object then?
Most songs stay within a country rock feel in the arrangements and although the production cannot be faulted, the sense of this artist trying too hard to write a commercial hit becomes increasingly apparent with Nashville Nights about as close as this gets.
Calm is a love song that rolls out to an easy beat while the frustration of misconnection is highlighted in Close to You. Equally we get a memory of looking back to when things were better in So Far From Heaven, the best song in this collection by a distance.