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Written
by Bradley Johnson, posted by blog admin
Gregg
Stewart is full of surprises. One might assume that releasing a successful solo
debut and intending on following it up in the same year with your second solo release
entailed writing a new slate of songs. Stewart confounds our expectations,
however, and shows himself to be a musician willing to follow his muse wherever
it leads by, instead, making that second solo release a covers album. It’s,
typically, the sort of release we associate with long-standing acts who,
entertain themselves playing old favorites after a successful run with their
original material. It isn’t what we’re used to, at all, from a indie artist
making his first meaningful forays into the music world on his own and not part
of a band. Based in California via New Jersey, Stewart organized this
collection around selecting songs from the catalogs of artists who died in
2016. Rather than some slightly mournful, solemn retrospective, however, Twenty
Sixteen is a sprawling fourteen song collection that draws from rare cuts in
the respective discographies of these writers and performers. Stewart makes
each song his own.
There’s
an artful swagger to his opening version of “You Spin Me Round” that,
admittedly, doesn’t match the sheer propulsive forward-motion of Dead Or Alive’s
original but definitely assumes its own character. This isn’t some sort of
strictly solo effort – Stewart makes unobtrusive use of some first class
backing musicians who help him transform these tunes into something uniquely
his own. Their ability to straddle a line between re-interpretation and fidelity
to the original is seldom better illustrated than it is on their cover of
Prince’s “Raspberry Beret”. Stripped of its soft-pedaled psychedelic pop
trappings, we’re left with the song’s key melodic phrase and Stewart’s voice to
carry the day. These elements, alongside a low fi approach, are more than
enough to carry the day. His stylistic range becomes all the more evident on
the track “Sing a Song”, authored by Maurice White of Earth, Wind, and Fire
fan. This leans much more towards the re-invention side of the artistic ledger,
but Stewart never fails to sound anything less than confident and comfortable
working in this mode.
Stewart’s
avowed purpose with his cover of Leon Russell’s “One More Love Song” is to
recall the glories of seminal roots rockers The Band and he does a good job of
approximating that sound while still following his own path. It’s certainly the
most “rustic”, countrified number on the album. He covers a song from Glen Frey’s
solo career with the track “I Found Somebody” and it has the sort of easy
melodic rock amble that defined much of Frey’s material. Stewart gives a
bright, vibrant vocal performance full of charisma and musicality. The mood
takes on a more melancholy, observant edge with his pensive cover of Guy Clark’s
“Out in the Parking Lot” and anyone familiar with the Texan songwriter’s art
will appreciate the care Stewart takes with both the tasteful musical backing
and his affectionately rendered vocal. The album’s penultimate performance
covers the iconic Leonard Cohen but, rather than hitting some of the obvious
choices like “Bird on a Wire” or other tracks, Stewart pulls “Leaving the Table”
from Cohen’s final album You Want It Darker and delivers an impassioned
performance for a song that’s, in some ways, more like a prayer set to music
than a pop song. Listeners familiar with Stewart won’t find themselves overtly
longing for his songwriting instead; Gregg Stewart, instead, owns these tracks
as if they came from his pen. Twenty Sixteen is a great release.
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