Tom Cole’s ‘The Road Less Travelled’ is a showcase of some
his newest self-penned material plus reworkings of a couple of songs that have
been part of his gigs for several years. Tom is increasingly and deservedly well-known
on the live acoustic music scene of Hastings and surrounding towns, and this
new EP serves as an excellent showcase of what he can do.
I feel conflicted though in my responses on listening to it
as I have heard him perform these songs either live (as in a bar) or live
virtual (as in Covid-19). In some cases, I think they sound truer in those
settings. In others the studio fleshes out the performances, bringing out the
musical core of a number that can sometimes be lost when played solo in a pub setting.
I had a similar feeling about his last EP, ‘Ramblin’ Man’.
This EP’s flagship song is ‘Sure (The Road Less Travelled)’.
It kicks off the disc and provides a kind of mission statement of what Tom’s
art is all about. The road that seems ‘sure’, the one it’s supposedly safe to
take because it’s straight and true, in life and in music, is for ‘fools’. Tom
prefers to plough a range of furrows. In consequence his music is an eclectic
celebration of roots music, of Americana; call it what you will. When I first
played the disc’s version of this number, I worried that the accomplished violinist that
accompanies Tom on most of the EP (Henry Bristow, the EP’s producer)
was here maybe sounding just a bit twee. Then I listened again and got a better
appreciation of how he rounds off Tom’s understated but effective vocals and
his country-style guitar picking.
The acid test for me though was how a studio reworking of ‘In
My Time of Dyin’' would sound. I’ve long believed that Tom should release a live version of his interpretation of this Blues/Gospel standard as, solo and
exposed, he’s always conveyed the emotional power at the heart of the song. What’s
more, solo voice and acoustic guitar are wholly in this song’s tradition, and it’s
precisely how another great interpreter of this African-American classic, Bob Dylan, chose to do it. To be honest, I still think the jury’s out on which method
comes out best. However, this studio version preserves the raw power of Tom’s interpretation
while adding a darker fiddle sound, a touch of keyboard, background vocals and
some subtle vocal effects, to build a soundscape that’s highly atmospheric but without
drowning the song’s central message: in the end we are alone, unless we have
faith.
‘Push Me Out to Sea’ is a very personal song by Tom, written
in tribute to his late father, who had worked as a fisherman off the Hastings
coast. It’s simple and effective, with Henry’s fiddle and backing vocal adding
an extra layer without obscuring the heartfelt sentiment. I imagine that the two of
them doing this live is a crowd-pleaser indeed.
‘Old True Lover’ already has
the air of an old classic, a lament for the bittersweet pain of love, the
eternal message of songs the world over. ‘Think On You a While’ takes Tom’s sound back to basics: he accompanies
himself, simply, on harmonica on a song that just doesn’t need anything more. ‘Long
Way Home’ concludes the set in a rare up-tempo fashion. It’s a reinterpretation
of one of his own songs that a few years ago he performed in the studio, with
accompaniment, for a Hastings Friendship Group CD, 'The Circle of Trust'. This interpretation, featuring
fiddle and keyboards, brings out the song’s undeniable catchiness even more effectively,
and gives a sense of what The Tom Cole Band, his occasional musical vehicle, sounds
like live.
In keeping with the times we’re living through, ‘The Road
Less Travelled’ EP had its showcase live on Facebook just under a week ago. It
can be heard in its entirety via Tom Cole’s website and can be purchased here via
Bandcamp.
