ANDREW COMBS – Dream Pictures (Loose Music)

Dream PicturesAndrew Combs’s album Dream Pictures is a soulful folk record with a candle’s dance and melodies that sip from a drowsy glass of wine. This is slow-burning stuff – with deeply grooved thoughtful tunes that embrace a gorgeous introspective late-night wisdom. As Nashville-based Andrew says, “This record is about contentment”. And that’s a rarified thought in the consumer-incorporated world. These songs touch the beauty of a nice dream pumped from a pure artisan well water source.

“But the thing is”, as my friend, Kilda Defnut is wont to say, “still waters run deep”.

The opening instrumental, ‘Fly In My Wine’, is an eerie watercolour, with whistling, a few voices, an odd buzz, and a few ghostly piano notes.

So (to quote Aerosmith), “Dream On”.

The quiet song, ‘Eventide’, barely registers a pulse, but probes deep sea currents. Andrew’s tranquil voice surfs the music quelled with piano, slight percussion (Thank you, co-conspirator, Dan Bullett!), and a nice keyboard wobble.

Then, the dreamy vibe continues. ‘Point Across’ glances back to the 70’s introspective singer-songwriter stuff. Nice, in a Dan Fogelberg sort of way. Ahh – ‘Heavy The Heart’ is pure folk bliss, with Andrew’s (always nice!) falsetto, and the addition of Spencer Cullun’s steel pedal. But, in juxtaposition, ‘Mary Gold’ ups the pop ante, with a catchy Sir Paul McCarthy Beatle-esque melody. Big compliment, that!

But (Thank you, Kilda Defnut!) these “still waters run deep”. The quietly strummed ‘Your Eyes On Me’ is an intimately passionate confession that, metaphorically, recalls “a swan dive in the waters down to the bottom of the lake”. This is a sad love letter from the fathoms of a drawn curtain memory. And then, ‘Genuine And Pure’ stops time with its weary touched purity. What a sublime chorus!  The lovelorn current continues with ‘I’m Fine’, which soars into a soulful pacific orbit with more pedal steel (and a few holy piano notes) that whirl amid Andrew’s full-throttled falsetto voice. Then, ‘Table For Blue’ is a psychological study of working-class dreams. Indeed, even melodic still waters can be the gist of a quietly profound folk song.

It’s fair to say that most of these Dream Pictures songs don’t plug into the electricity of previous tunes like ‘Dry Eyes’, ‘Foolin’’, and (especially!) ‘Heart Of Wonder’ from previous albums. But these Dream songs, in Andrew’s words, were “written for the quiet hours that bring each day to a close”. That said, ‘To Love’ has a nice funky folk soul. It’s a nice juxtaposition to the patiently touched purity of the other songs, with a vital electric guitar solo that can melt these “contented” vinyl grooves.

And ‘The Sea In Me’ could be a latter-day solo song by Robbie Robertson that tragically begs for a Richard Manuel vocal. Thankfully, Andrew’s vocals muster a whisper like soulful pines.

The final song, ‘Dream Pictures’, lingers in the shadow of that slow candle’s dance with a melody that sips from an, even more, drowsier glass of late-night introspective wine. The song touches the halo of sainthood that sails into an eternal folk song melody. These songs glide on a “quiet hours” late-night billowed thought, burrowing into the graven depths of unleavened, melodic, and always (and everywhere) still water “eventide” ghosts.

Bill Golembeski

Artist’s website: https://www.andrewcombsmusic.com/

‘The Sea In Me’ – official video:

 

 

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