Dave Easley 2021
Easley Rider
Out of The Big Easy to take on the world, versatile guitar-slinger revs up into the great wide open.
New Orleans musicians have always had a halo of enigma around them, and Dave Easley doesn’t make an inclusion to this rule, as suggested by his second album, as the platter, separated from the player’s debut “A Time Of The Signs” by a decade, seems set to confound everyone prepared to hear an instantly cohesive cycle of tunes. “Easley Rider” appears to be too varied – deceptively so – and that’s why, though the record’s gratification is gradual, once its inner logic has been revealed, the puzzle pieces fall into place, satisfying even the most cynical ear. There’s beauty in it, after all – perhaps, not on the outside but much deeper, to render the result a game of sorts: a quest.
The listener can source all the mystery to the medieval minstrelsy of “La Luna Desnuda” whose gossamer essence is distilled to the delicate weave of Easley’s acoustic strum and electric strands as well as his high-pitched, dainty vocal delivery – a seemingly far cry from the arresting acid-folk offered by multidimensional, percussive opener “I’m Crying” or psychedelic raga that is “Weed Eater Wars” where, in the absence of words, Dave’s vibrant guitars ultimately pretend to be a sitar. So while there are topical songs like the bluegrass-backgrounded “Billionaires” and trad-rooted numbers like the Appalachian ballad “Mockingbird” or the prisoner-name-dropper “Momma Was A Jailbird” which take his feelings – ranging from reserved anger to simmering mirth – to the surface where his instruments paint soothing patterns, and while “I Followed Her” opts for sensual bossa nova, such energetic cuts as “The Date And The Hour” are no less exquisite in their series of solos.
Still, special eloquence is reserved for “She Took The Wheel” voiced by six strings that almost speak, and for the spiritual “God’s Own Rain” that marries Dylanisms to natural wonders, with pedal steel lines rippling through its unhurried, filigreed flow before “Fault Zone” brings soft funk into focus, and “Expelled From The Garden” begins its graceful, twangy gallop towards the platter’s finale. The conclusion comes on the translucent wave of “The Sweetest One” – with Easley trying to embrace eternity anew – and there can’t be a better end to this bumpy, albeit entertaining, ride.
***4/5
