Road To Medicine Bow – Chuck Leah (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

It is music such as that found on Road To Medicine Bow that puts one of the musical questions I struggle with into perspective. Even in my own UK home, it seems that everyone with an acoustic guitar is donning a plaid shirt, writing songs with words like ‘whiskey,’ ‘train,’ ‘ blues,’ and ‘lonesome’ in the title, and rebranding themselves as Americana. But what is Americana? You could ask 10 music fans, artists, or industry people and get ten different answers. I know, I’ve done so.

For me, and I am no expert, so feel free to ignore me, Americana is music that speaks, in some way, of the life, history, culture, and experiences that have shaped the country for which it is named. Not necessarily in its words but always in something caught in the heart of the music – a spirit, a sonic soul, a yearning, a dream, a reflection of hopes and hardships, the highs and lows, everything that is unmistakably of that place and from which that place is made. And, by that understanding, Chuck Leah is the American experience distilled into music. Without a doubt, Americana.

The opening, title track of Road to Medicine Bow is the most eloquent answer to my above question. A drifting blues-infused, narrative folk song, one forged of steel pedal guitars and ticking banjos, strummed acoustic guitars, and awash with spacious and atmospheric sonics. A creative cultural cauldron of sound. Perfect!

And like the American experience, his Americana experience is made of myriad moods and many musical styles. “1018 (See Me)” is a folk ballad that is drenched in lilting country beats and gospel harmonies, New Orleans brass and soulful sentiments, in itself a music lesson in the American sound.”Matter of Time” is a soulful waltz, while “I Don’t Know How to Say Goodbye” takes country music into more accessible pop realms.

However, unlike most music that walks such a fine line, this song never compromises its authentic, rootsy sounds. Instead, it reminds us that pop music isn’t just the concern of chart-bound, fame-chasing, lowest-common-denominator-weilding chancers. If we remind ourselves that pop(ular) music means something that is accessible, infectious, contagious, perhaps even dance-inducing, but certainly memorable, then “I Don’t Know How to Say Goodbye” is about as pop as it gets. You’ll be humming it long after you have stopped listening to the record; that’s for sure. I know I was!

With a voice that sounds as if Rod Stewart grew up within spitting distance of the Mexican border, and I mean that in the most complimentry of ways, and a bag of songs that tell you everything you need to know about American music, not to mention its history and culture, one listen to this and you won’t have to ask that opening question ever again.

Chuck Leah is the real deal, the authentic troubadour and the benchmark by which all music claiming a stake in the Americana genre shall now be measured. Game on!