|
English-speaking Canadians flavour their delivery of folksongs with a slight cowboy twang. Wha' is that? Probably because 'Nashville' is a kind of artspeech that supports the image of the troubadour who tumbles along like a tumblin' tumbleweed, shedding songs about lovin' and leavin' and wondering wha’.
Greg Hobbs is a talented singer-songwriter-guitarplayer in this slightly-country mode. What makes Greg stand out is his witty facility with rhyme, e.g.–'bible'/'revival'– and an attractive plainness in his language–"Pour me another beer and I'll tell you another story from the bible."
His main theme is love, often casual, hopefully lasting, usually flawed by his own well-meaning but careless youth. Despite a sense of the instability of his situation, he projects a gentle optimism: "We'll stumble our way through/Others have done it/ I'm sure that we can too." He has sincerely been fascinated by a lot of girls–Sandra and Amanda–, and has drunk a lot of beer with a lot of guys.
His songs have coherence, good melodies, shapely stories. I've listened to this album twice. I could listen to it again.
|
