Home > Magazine > Content
Reviews: Terry Gomes ~ Gomesongs Side B
Posted on Saturday, April 05, 2008 @ 14:16:42 PDT
Topic: Reviews
|
Artist: Terry Gomes
CD: Gomesongs Side B
Home: Ottawa, Ontario
Style: Adult Contemporay/Folk/Country
Quote: "It’s a nice variety of ballads and up tempo tunes, leaning more toward adult contemporary but also venturing into mainstream country. He’s a heckofa guitar player too."
By Jamie Anderson
I’m sitting here in Ottawa, looking out at the six foot snow drifts in March and realizing why it is that there are so many great musicians in Canada. If you can’t go skating on the canal or skiing every day you might as well hang out inside and play music. And in Gomes case, write and record music you’d like to sell. This release features a mixture of tunes accepted by some American publishers plus a few that audiences simply liked. It’s a nice variety of ballads and up tempo tunes, leaning more toward adult contemporary but also venturing into mainstream country. He’s a heckofa guitar player too. In fact, he plays all the instruments except the drums. Six different singers hold down the vocalist slots and just to prove he can do that too, Terry sings on one song.
The disc opens with the Bakersfield country style “It’s a Dirty Job,” a light hearted little ditty about keeping his poor neighbor’s wife company when the man of the house isn’t around. “Fish Tracks” is about the innocence of youth and how it carries into adulthood. In “I’ve Got Your Name On Me” he sings
I wear your name on my ass
So I can sit down with class ...
Uh, okay. It’s meant to be a funny song but falls a little flat. I get the concept but it either needs to be sharp and clever or pee-in-your-pants funny and it’s neither. In fact, for the most part, while the instrumentation he plays on everything is great, it’s often the lyrics that drag the songs down. It’s not they’re horrible, but sometimes too mundane and occasionally clichéd. There’s hope though, and it shines brightly on “I Dream of Boats”:
It’s not like before
I only see you growing smaller on the shore
When you lay me down
I begin to float
Then I dream of boats ...
The imagery really tells the story well. He’s not trying so hard. I love the arrangement too, not too cluttered and featuring his lovely acoustic guitar work plus the clear-with-a-little-ache vocals of Tammy McCrae.
Another standout cut is “Socantina,” the only instrumental here, and it features a beautiful latin-flavored acoustic guitar and earthy hand percussion. A nice break-down happens in the middle, with some of the instrumentation backing out, then dancing back in. This would be great background music for a TV show or movie where a couple is walking on the beach, hand in hand, cheery warm sun in the sky … sorry, I was just drifting off, trying to forget all the snow outside.
“Something Changed That Night” and “Tell It To Me Straight” sound like songs he put together to sell to country artists. They’re pleasant but sound too forced. The disc ends with “Hey Sweet Shirley.” It’d be a cool party song but I don’t love the fake Jamaican accent.
Gomes is great when he relaxes and does what he knows best. That doesn’t mean songs about hockey (Hi Canada!) but cuts with more of his great acoustic guitar work and tender imagery like the words of “I Dream Of Boats.” Usually I wouldn’t wish this on anyone, but I’m thinking another bad winter might do the trick.
Artist Website: http://www.terrygomes.com
|
|
| |
|
Indie-Music
Profile
