Four fresh Country love songs on a EP
I first encountered Jarrod Dickenson when he was a support act in a London pub three years ago and his album The Lonesome Traveller was a favourite the following year.
As with the majority of artists these days he has to make a living by constantly touring; so for an upcoming UK and Ireland tour he has emptied his piggy-bank and recorded this delightful EP to give his fans something new to take home.
Opening track Your Heart Belongs to Me is a simple Country-Folk song about two lovers on the night that they both know that their love is the ‘real thing’ and Dickenson captures the mood exquisitely.
Take a Breath could be the same couple some time later as they attempt to forget their worries and re-live the days when he would ‘spin her around in circles’ and ‘dance beneath the moon.’ The mournful cello and soft drumming in the background adds to the sad demeanour of the tune; but aren’t the best Country love songs sad ones?
With a title like Misty Eyes and a Troubled Mind holds no surprises whatsoever but must have been written after overdosing on Willie Nelson and Hank Williams and the short guitar solos are pure Chet Atkins too. This is one for the purists.
The EP ends with the tale of a long distance romance Take Me At My Word; where the two lovers are clinging on by the skin of their teeth and you will be willing them to succeed as the final bars fade away into the ether.
Four songs of this calibre simply isn’t good enough; a whole album would just about sate me if the other 7 or 8 tracks were as good as these.
The Rocking Magpie 