JOHN LYLE: THE THING ABOUT THE BLUES

Album Review of:

‘RANDOM CHANTS’ by JOHN LYLE

(Own Label, 2020)  www.johnlyle.bandcamp.com

direct from: 6488 Gale Ave, N Sechelt, BC, Canada VON3A5

John Lyle would only be different if he wasn’t the same. His bruised voice is a strange addiction. You take a hit, you need a regular fix. Even doing a sweet three minutes of tight group waltz-time he’s still a wry groan away from the shadow on a penitentiary wall. He’s a gasp away from asphyxiation off the grid. He’s a leaky dam, aggravating ripples in gravity where love dies in dishonesty. He emotes low-down tales as intimate as poems, as rich as diamonds, with kneejerk rhythms and a rattlesnake bite. Songs about the guy who swears he wrote “Chantilly Lace”… you KNOW what I like! Or the old buddy watching TV cop movies, in which he’s dragging the river for the body of his soul. He sings about a pocketful of ‘Bad Weed’, and running around in circles ever since he lost the Grateful Dead. He lets the words spill out, or pitchforks them in. Just don’t step on the “Heavy Is The Head” boogie backbeat. “The Thing About The Blues” nudges the MGs with Chris Nole’s Booker T organ, as John hits a smooth guitar groove, with nifty instrumental interplay around the reflective “The Rest Of Your Life”, or the solo “It Helps You Sleep” where infinity and eternity hang by a thread. Co-writer Diane Williams adds vocal harmony to “The Blood Of Someone New”. There’s also a hidden track (on the special edition) which reignites ancient loss and love beyond death. When John Lyle wraps up all your cares and woes he infiltrates them into the remnants of a song, with strength in its differences. He doesn’t necessarily know what he’s doing, but he’s doing it again.

BY ANDREW DARLINGTON

Andrew Darlington is a major poet and writer on music and culture. You can find more of his work at http://andrewdarlington.blogspot.com.