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Rating: Do we still need rock singer-songwriters? The question isn't random, but born after traveling on the Autosole with Micah P. Hinson telling me his story. And for fear of getting distracted, I respected all the speed limits, all of them. Well, in Italy, singer-songwriters these days only produce little songs, and someone has already said that (especially since Vasco died a few years ago). So let's cut to the chase.
There's a part of the interview published in this month's Rockerilla that identifies the artistic core—and, in my opinion, the human core—of this author: "The attempt to always be in situations bigger than myself, and the strange undeniable desire to feel everything on my own skin, as if only a direct and traumatic experience could be authentic". We are facing a man—but damn it, he's a 22-year-old boy—no, he's a man, sorry, who has already been through a lot: a friend tragically dead, a woman who introduced him to the tunnel of drugs and alcohol after dumping him, and then redemption thanks to those same friends he played with before his heavy fall, The Earlies.
We are facing a masterpiece of folk-rock, an album crafted with arrangements that break the boundaries of a simple acoustic ballad and that sweat experience. From what pulpit? From that of a twentysomething who is surely more mature than me, and of his voice that possesses an expressive capacity equal to that of Mark Lanegan, for example. I even conducted a test among friends to whom I made them listen: "Listen to this guy singing and tell me how old you think he is?". Everyone responded from 35 upwards.
Where does this work sink its roots? In the folk and country roots that Hinson himself reveals, Johnny Cash and John Denver, but also in Leonard Cohen's darkness and the intimacy of Joy Division. And if someone is reminded of Damien Rice, I believe they will forget him as soon as they listen to "Close Your Eyes", "Beneath The Rose", "Don't You", and "The Day Texas Sank To The Bottom Of The Sea".
"I've gone through things that almost lost me and I had to grow up fast to not be overwhelmed by events". Why do the most beautiful things, the things you can most identify with, which can most give authenticity to your work, often come from a tragedy? I don't think there's an answer, but luckily the reality of my senses cannot help but vibrate hearing a songwriter of this caliber sing. The Gospel Of Progress is good news.Tracklist and Videos
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