This is a solid country/roots/folk album which features fiddle, mandolin and banjo which are given equal value to the drums, bass, electric guitar and pedal steel which add texture to Brown's songs. This Washington State based musician has a warm easy voice. His songs are filled with good couplets and a strong sense of place that, in some ways, makes him a John Denver for a new generation.
Produced by Brown the sound has a warmth and diversity that is equally at home with the gentler more acoustic songs as it has with those delivered with a more robust rhythm.
The songs show a writer who is aware of the people and landscapes he crosses and that is reflected in the album's title as well as songs such as Desert Wind, Ocean and Northeast of Eden. One song seems a distant cousin of Mary Gauthier's song I Drink, but where her figure imbibed, Brown's wonders. When I Go Out at Night features alto saxophone which gives it an added emphasis. Throughout, the assembled musicians provide appropriate and sensitive accompaniment.
This is Kevin Brown's second release which will help to establish him as a solid, sensitive songwriter who utilizes his words well, like this from Desert Wind; "...the book of Mormon by the hotel bed, looking lonesome like it ain't been read..." or "I like the slow ones, those sad old country songs. Steel guitars and midnight bars and someone done you wrong".
These show that Brown has put together a considered package that sees thought and effort put into all aspects of the album from Katherine Nelson's charcoal drawn cover through the songs, production and playing. A gentle low-key album that will find favour with many who get to hear it.