Perhaps best known as the frontman of Midwest favorites The Firewater Gospel Choir, Joshua Lassi, now a resident of Florida, also walks a parallel path as a solo artist. His debut album is “The Only Thing That Hasn’t Changed,” and it is rather brilliant.
It is fair to say that music is always going to be the product of where you as an artist have been, both musically and physically, and so stamped into the DNA of this six-song collection are the southern grooves of his Texas origins, the cooler climate-infused Americana of Minnesota, a place that he called home for a quarter of a decade, and the warmer and smoother sound of his new home in the Florida panhandle.
Songs such as “Ghosts” remind us that roots music is all the product of the same sonic parents if you follow the thread back far enough, and this blend of Old World folk and New World country is a fantastic opening sonic gambit.
There are songs that lean further into one genre or another, such as “Bones'” Nashville groove or “Kicked and Burned’s” tones, which could easily be the product of an English folk session. Then, some songs transcend both. “Still The Boys” is a gorgeous, spacious waltz that echoes with timeless heritage and seems to merely be the music of the people, transcending genre and geography.
It’s a great set of songs and a fantastic new chapter; I can’t wait to hear what Joshua Lassi comes out with next, although there is no rush, because in “The Only Thing That Hasn’t Changed,” we have a collection of songs that are going to keep me satisfied for a long time to come.
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