Album review (Songs from the Heartland)

https://madewellmusic.com/songs-from-the-heartland

https://madewellmusic.com/files/1381106/mosbrook-what-r-we-waiting-for.pdf

What Are We Waiting For? It’s Time

Album Review by Steve Madewell

Charlie Mosbrook is a Cleveland-area songwriter who performs his original material on a handful of instruments.

What Are We Waiting For? It’s Time, is a lovely addition to Charlie’s catalog of recordings, offering insightful lyrics, subtle yet catchy melodies, and engaging arrangements.

I met Charlie shortly after he became president of Folknet, a Cleveland Northeast Ohio folk music society. I was putting together a Singer-Songwriter round and invited Charlie to join Mark Freeman and me at a local winery. I didn’t realize Charlie had some mobility issues and uses a wheelchair. I was more than a little concerned, as the winery was previously used as the milking parlor of a dairy barn. In a nutshell, from a mobility perspective, it’s not very accessible. When I sheepishly shared my concerns with Charlie, he said something that summarizes his attitude and approach to life: “I have yet to find a stage that I can’t perform from“.

Since that evening, we have spent a considerable amount of time together. Charlie encouraged me to become a member of the Folknet board and to also consider attending the FARM conference. FARM is a regional organization for Folk Alliance International. I’ve had the pleasure of watching Charlie perform in a number of settings and have observed his commitment to sharing music, not only through performing, but through education and also as an advocate for folk music on a local, regional, and national level. As a person, a performer, an artist, and a musical advocate, Charlie is a remarkable individual, and this is a remarkable recording.

This record has almost a fatalist air about it with regard to the current state of our national situation, yet, mixed in the social commentary are elements of hope and encouragement to look for and work toward a better day. I listened to the record beginning to end, perhaps ten times or more, not counting the replays of several individual cuts. Early in this evaluation process, I found myself imagining what certain tracks would sound like being performed by individuals or bands devoted to specific musical genres. This is very unusual for me. As I analyzed this personal phenomenon, I realized it was a testament to the power in the message of each song.

What Are We Waiting For? It’s Time, is a collection of thoughtful and timely songs composed and delivered in an engaging, musical format. While it is clearly a folk project, the listener will be able to hear influences from other genres.

This project opens with I Don’t Know What We’re Gonna Do? I suppose there isn’t a more straightforward question for these troubled times. The song makes statements on current situations and then offers an insightful observation, sometimes as a question, other times a statement that is neither condescending nor inflammatory. I found that this pattern is often repeated throughout the recording.

A New King Has Been Crowned is a terribly disturbing observation. A few bars of a recorded passage are being played backward during the intro and closing of this song. I couldn’t help but wonder if there was a subliminal message of reassurance hidden within. I wish there was. If the first two songs are unsettling, the third tune Pass It Along, offers a timeless folk tradition. Hope can be found, and healing can occur with the process of sharing truth and observation through song.

Let’s Do It This Time is a call to action. The song lists motivational reasons individuals should come together: love, the joy of the moment, the future, life, and, quite simply, coming together in the time of insecurity is the right thing to do.

Moving from a motivational call to action, Fond of You, is a reminder of how fundamental emotion, love, can provide a sense of hope for the future.

A few years ago, I heard Crowes Pasture do a song about reclaiming the symbolic imagery of our nation’s flag from extreme groups who have tried to malign any values outside of their own myopic agenda. Charlie shares a bold and clear statement in his rendition of this Steve Van Zandt song, I Am A Patriot.

A Little More Heart offers a bit of a sonic change-up by featuring an electric guitar as a sound bed for a strong social statement. And, in addition to introducing another style of music, Train Wreck At East Palestine is a perfect example of presenting a terrible tragedy in an almost humorous fashion.

The project moves along with We Should Have Known which takes the 20,000-foot view that we are all in this together, and If It’s Not Too Late, casts a hopeful view toward a distant horizon.

The project is cleanly recorded and produced. Charlie is making all of the music, supplying vocals and instrumentation. I was deeply impressed with the bass lines, so much so that I messaged Charlie specifically to ask who was playing bass. Unlike the low end in many songs, this approach often mirrors the melody lines or provides a counterpoint to the melody.

There are many great recordings coming out of home studios, but I can assure the reader that there is a true skill in not only performing a piece of music while simultaneously assuming the role of recording engineer, twisting the knobs, pushing the buttons, and checking all the levels.