Cam Penner 'Gypsy Summer' - Self-Release

This new album form Cam Penner builds on his past more stripped back recording and features a full band behind Penner's strong, life-fueled vocal. Driftwood which opens the album has the refrain that "it's going to get worse before it gets better" but then musically throws some spiritually uplifting music our way. Gypsy Woman is a powerful mix of guitar and keyboards. Ghost Car is immediately a striking road song that pulses along like America's forgotten highways to a higher place. But equally Penner can deliver a simple stripped back song like Cool Cool Nights with equal integrity. There is no doubt that Penner is believable, at times intense but always uncompromising in it's truth.This album is accomplished and diverse and opens many a new road fro Penner and his fans to travel along. Penner produced this album at Cloudy Ridge Ranch a rural location that allowed the players to concentrate on the music and its meaning. A relaxed non-studio set up that allows the songs space to give life to the emotions and excursions that these songs evoke. Divided into Side A and Side B the songs on the second section open with the funkier groove of My Lover & I before giving way to the Hey My My My where the repeated refrain forms the backbone of a song of strayed love.Throw Your Hands Up has a programmed rhythm base that gives it it's drive and shows again the diversity of the music here. Driftwood (Reprise) has a more widescreen vista while the closing Come As You Are drifts on a more string based reflection that suggests an open-minded approach to a relationship. There may be a times a sense of displacement and weariness to these songs but in the end they give hope not defeat and the gypsy summer of Penner's journey has warmth at it's heart and it's journey.