Dan Weber
Album: What I'm Looking For
Label: Highway 142
Tracks: 13
Website: http://www.danwebermusic.com

The fact that the grainy-voiced New York born Weber came second in the 2014 Woody Guthrie songwriting contest should give you an idea of where he's coming from. Indeed, the opening track of his sophomore album, is titled Oh Woody, a song written to commemorate Guthrie's 100th birthday that, echoing the master's style, laments how much the new depression needs his voice. With songs that both explore contemporary America and look inward at his and others' lives and feelings, Weber has a grit and honesty to his material and delivery. Not to mention a definite affection for the iconic image of the cowboy. Do You Ride Horses is a strummed, fiddle accompanied, John Stewart-like, tale of an old lady he met who told him the story of her late cowboy husband and his lifetime love of riding horses and the freedom it brought while, even more direct, Cowboy Style has Weber talking about how he wants to buried, boots on, hat in the coffin of Pondersosa pine and Take A Liking To You (which melodically recalls Dylan's Forever Young) is a toast to a good life that references Roy Rogers' radio show sign-off.

Aided and abetted by some fine musicians that include banjo and dobro maestro Tony Furtado, the album's populated with songs about clear skies, idyllic small towns where, as on What I'm Lookin' For, you know all your neighbours and you never need to lock the door, and the lure of the open road that informs the Guthrie-esque Ain't Done Ramblin'Yet. A two time finalist of the Kerrville Folk Festival, he also has a huge affection for the Lone Star state, celebrated here with Leaving Texas with its you can take the boy out of Texas but… sentiments.

On more personal notes, Spinning My Wheels is about learning to forgive yourself, its final lines picked up in the title of the following number, I'm Coming Home, a song inspired by an old flame that never quite turned into a blaze, while, accompanied by piano and steel and again recalling Stewart in his vocals, Pretty Good Tonight is all about accepting who you are and getting on with life, a song born of his suffering panic attack s and anxiety.

Elsewhere, reminiscent of early John Prine, inspired by the funeral of an iconic female singer who died too soon (Amy Winehouse?) , Waiting On A Star is about how fame can consume you; initially conceived as an uptempo country rocker about owing money to U-Haul, Separate Ways ended up a piano breakup ballad, and is almost certainly far better for it; and the steel-stained That Time Of Night is a familiar tale about those times when another beer or the drunk, younger girl who asks you to dance are dangerously more tempting than the drive home.

The album ends on what sounds like his show crowdpleaser, the mandolin and fiddle driven I(I Deal With) Crazy ALL Day, a jauntily upbeat celebration about dealing with and surviving the everyday madness of life. I have to admit, I'd never heard of Weber prior to this album. But I'm most definitely looking forward to hearing more.

Mike Davies