Country and folk music with ambitious lyrical satire.

10 MP3 Songs in this album (33:01) !
Related styles: COUNTRY: Country Folk, COUNTRY: Traditional Country

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Details:
âDaylight On The Riseâ is singer/songwriter Stephen Shepherdâs fourth CD in five years, and it is perhaps his most ambitious. Like his previous album that charted for 62 weeks on the U.S. Roots Music Chart and peaking at #21, Shepherdâs âDaylight On The Riseâ hunkers down between the folk and country genres. The title song, âDaylight On The Rise,â addresses an individual awakening of the country spirit by using farm images and the sun rising on Godâs earth. It is a powerful song that at first calibrates an imperfect distance and then builds to a power finale, as if a soul has been alienated and then saved. In particular, âThe Decision Wonât Be Youâ strikes a touching raw and Celtic chord with a lamenting Appalachian fiddle bemoaning a long-suffering and ill-fated love affair. âWillieâs Money,â a spoof about the feast or famine nature of country music, imagines a sole proprietor of the Nelson State Bank, while âPeachy Keen Cowboyâ recognizes the superficial and marketing nature of the music industry. âCalifornia Beachinâ Blues,â written in the dead of a brutal Midwest winter, epitomizes the braggart who threatens to leave Chicago for a warmer clime but wonât, although heâs reminded by a friend that he has nothing to lose. Hence, even when you have nothing to lose - change is still difficult.

Perhaps the most notable lyric is found on âUzis In the Barn,â a raging bluegrass satire about U.S. farmers preparing for a terrorist attack on their farms. Itâs a tongue-in-check look at that improbable possibility and what farmland preparation would be necessary. âWhy Didnât We Get Thereâ uses automobile metaphors to describe a romantic relationship deemed by the songâs narrator as destined to crash. By using a chord progression found in classic 1950âs car crash songs, Shepherdâs satire takes the car crash theme one step closer by metaphorically joining the car with its passengers. âLetâs Talk About Love,â a breezy wedding song (a.k.a. The Eagles), captures the culmination of everyone showing up at a wedding by stacking up romantic images to talk about the bride and groomâs romantic courtship prior to the wedding day. The romantic images are universal, thus making the coupleâs romantic courtship ours and guaranteeing our own arrival. âCrystal Kingdoms,â perhaps the most cerebral song on the album, is a haunting tune about loneliness and the risks of pursuing love. In particular, like so many instrumental attributes on the album, the raw mandolin solo adds a plaintive and minimalist touch that exacts the imperfect nature of most relationships. And finally, âRoad Cowboyâ dispels the romantic myth of trucking by pealing back the coarseness of it being a full-time lifestyle. Trucking is a lonely and sometimes dangerous occupation, which is portrayed by the isolated and sheering guitar, the single vocal accompaniment, and lyrics like âdesperation doesnât take time; it just takes need.â

Once again, Shepherdâs cerebral approach to country music on âDaylight On The Riseâ is a welcomed change. Itâs true; Stephen Shepherd is a thinking manâs country music artist, and âDaylight On The Rise Albumâ is ambitious proof of it.