The search for new music to fall in love with and that I then recommend with my articles, my posts on Instagram and (very soon) with my broadcast Trex Music Club for the WCN web radio, is a “work” non-stop and without borders.
The music I love is the most American you can think of.
Also the way of doing, thinking and producing music is typical of the United States: that feeling that everyone can do, that if you have talent you will have a chance to breathe in the streets of Nashville, Fort Worth, Tulsa or the Appalachian Mountains.
There are people, including myself, who love this music so much and all the feelings it brings with it that they feel a little American inside. An elective affinity that leads the soul to feel part of that musical scene and also of life.
I put at the service of this feeling my love for writing and then I write about those artists to make them known, not having musical talent: everyone does what he can right?
While those who are kissed by the talent that you breathe in the air of the desert of Texas or the valleys of beautiful Kentucky, try to do everything to live your American dream, even if you live in a small French country thousands of miles from the locals of Nashville.
So don’t be fooled by the jinksian beard and the somewhat American-Irish name, my dear friend Terry O’Brien is French and comes from a family that has the art of music in its DNA.
I say “friend” because Terry and I have been going for a while now to the same Facebook groups that spread the word of American independent music.
It all started with the great Cody Jinks and then zoomed wildly across the United States and beyond.
The same album that I bring to your attention today, his third album in 3 years, is the maximum expression of this love that has crossed borders, despite being a love for a music purely “local” and linked to the stories of those lands.
Maybe this is why it is so loved, because in European latitudes there is no such “real” music, which speaks to people and is made by normal people.
Desperados as I said is his third album and so far the musical evolution has been constant: from a record (which I told you about here: https://www.trexroads.com/desolation-road-terry-obrien-2021-english/) acoustic and dry, up to a record full of collaborations, even international, together with friends from Switzerland, Brazil, USA, Holland and Germany.
A mix that we like and that gives us 15 pieces that could have been designed and recorded in Texas and seem “autochthonous”.
The opening track, Devil’s Cry, seems taken from the soundtrack of a modern western film, where the intense voice of Terry accompanies us through the canyons and the dust together with the equally intense voice of his friend Sebastian Mella.
Best of Friends is a song almost honkytonk and the two voices, with him his dearest musician friend Cherokee Cruz, are perfectly intertwined in this song of celebration of true friendship.
The work of the guitars is splendid. The songs really should be mentioned all the participants in this fun, cool and well-played album celebrated for the wonderful work.
The ballad Beautiful Day is one of the most beautiful, but also unsettling. Why? For the presence of the beautiful voice of his Brazilian friend Elton Lu who sings in Portuguese, creating a truly successful duet.
My favorite is Rockin’, a country rock with a Texas soul enriched by the voice and guitar of Lastro Voc, a song that seems to come from a radio in Nashville, the good part of Nashville of course.
Mountain Town instead flows into bluegrass and the sound of banjo (instrument that I love) by Gilles Rezard is a really delicious touch and the air of the Appalachian Mountains furrows the ocean and lies on the French coasts.
Another of my favorites is Old Man, where country folk embraces the sounds from which much of the American sound is still inspired and that is that Irish sound that comes from the speakers is just that of an instrument typical of Celtic music. But the soul is American, it’s country, it’s quality independent music.
The album should be appreciated and listened to in its entirety and I apologize to the other artists on the record if I did not mention all the songs, but really it is worth discovering a beautiful independent record to the core and therefore in need of word of mouth.
Credit for the beautiful final solo of My Daddy’s Eyes and for the wonderful vocal part of Lindsay O’Connor in So Blue.
If you are curious and if you like what you hear, the suggestion is to support Terry O’Brien and buy his record and his merchandising: it absolutely deserves. (https://terry-obrien.com).
An album that already from the cover, where a group of outlaw friends welcomes you on this journey, shows the direction his music will take. 15 independent country songs, inspired by the love for American music and enriched by quality songwriting and talented musicians.
The proof that the feeling that moves the American artists has now crossed the borders and someone even on this side of the Ocean feels a little more American, there are those who write articles and novels, and there are those who write and play beautiful songs that could be safely in a Texan record and be played at one of the beautiful festivals that the summer stars and stripes gives us.
Good listening,
Trex Willer by http://www.ticinonotizie.it
(in Ticino Notizie web site you can find original italian version of this article)
