Release Date: Sep 24, 2013
Genre(s): Pop/Rock
Record label: Electric Ragtime
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Time has proven that the internet isn’t so much a democracy for music and other art as it is a borderless sharing space, an antique mall for the brand new. You claim your space, you shop your wares and, unfortunately, you can get largely ignored. The acts that rise above aren’t lucky, or better, they have other resources. The thing about this big sharing space is that, as much as it has increased accessibility to music, it hasn’t changed the channels that bring that music to us much.
The first thing beckoning you towards Blue Rider is its atmosphere spacious, cool, distant. Zachary Cale's mesmerizing finger-picking, drawing on open-string drone and country blues tunings, wanders restlessly around a clean, well-lit place of a mix, synths humming like 3am refrigerators and chiming guitars confusing your sense of middle distance. It is a misty, gorgeous record, a space that feels wonderful to roam around in.
Folks, you are going to want to bust out your headphones for this one. You might also want to bust out a sweater, throw a log on the fire and curl up under an afghan because Blue Rider is an essential autumn album. The Louisiana-bred Cale has turned in an album as delicate as leaves descent from the tallest trees and just as beautiful, as forlorn as a 5:30 sunset and as warm as a fresh cup of cider.
Blue Rider is a road album. One of those collections of songs that stretches out in an infinite expanse as it plays, uniquely singular sounding, but often blending into one indistinguishable stream of sound. Zachary Cale’s Louisianan roots are obvious here—his voice is one of those slow drawls that drapes itself like taffy over everything around it.
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