Darryl Purpose – Next Time Around

darrylPurposeArtDarryl Purpose is clearly the second coming of James Taylor and Tom Rush.

As someone who cut her musical teeth on those and other masters of American folk, I don’t make such statements lightly.

Take a listen to Purpose’s just-released “Next Time Around” and get ready to be bowled over by the beauty of this music. It’s not just the acoustic melodies that move seamlessly from aching to heartfelt or the nearly gritty vocals that set him apart. Like Taylor and Rush, Purpose writes songs filled with the honest ruminations of a life well examined, looking at the positive slant in times of adversity. The instrumentation he chooses – a fiddle here, a mandolin there, sprinkled over flawlessly played acoustic guitar – are as pure as the poetry of his lyrics.

It’s not an overstatement to note that “Next Time Around,” Purpose’s latest release, will touch the heart of old-school folk lovers that yearn for the format’s once pristine charm.

Listen to the first track — “Dreams of Life” – which has just the right amount of percussion to set off the story of wistful loneliness – and you’ll be transported right back to Boston when Taylor and Rush were just breaking out. Yeah, the sound and vivid lyrical imagery– “sun shining like Cuervo Gold” – is that magnificent.

The throbbing percussions and cymbals on “Race the Wind,” another meditative jewel about absorbing positive spirits to strengthen you own, is the perfect feel good tonic.

A true stand out track, which Americana will clearly want to claim as its own, is “The Ghost of Crazy Horse.” Soaring fiddles, Native American drumbeats, western-styled guitar picking – yeah, this is destined for heavy rotation on plenty of playlists.

“Next Time Around” is the gold standard of modern American folk.

Find out more about Purpose and his music on his official website. Written by: Nancy Dunham