This album is gift wrapped for dreamers, whether you’re
living it real stateside or hooked up in an estate in suburban England armed
with a fistful of records celebrating the West. Frankie Lee has lived the life
of a country song and now his debut album AMERICAN DREAMER unveils as a road
map to the land of endless highways. This widely travelled artist, now based in
Minneapolis, has teamed up with Loose Music for its European release and praise
has come rushing in from a plethora of trusted sources. What the listener is
presented with is a compact set of ten tracks bathed in the essence of a late
night jam. What you are left with is the satisfied feeling of letting a deluge
of cool Americana music soak right through layer upon layer of emotive
resistance.
Lee bases his writing on the vastness of the rural landscape
and uses impressive imagery skills to relay the contents of his fertile
imagination. Musically, Lee has gravitated to the piano for his sound accompaniment
treading in the footsteps of many of his compatriot luminaries. The vocals wrap
around each tune with a delightful feel of a wearisome soul, yet marvellously
match the mood of the songs’ sentiments. The true worth of any record is to
raise a satisfying smile with each listen and the continual playing of sensational
album opener ‘High and Dry’ manages
this every time the tones of the track hit your aural senses. A killer chorus is
a key part of many a good song with the banjo and fiddle parts adding to the
impact of this storming start.
Echoes of classic 70’s singer-songwriter rock is etched on ‘Black Dog’, an era continually surfacing
in much of the current Americana output. The full sound inserted into this
track adds an air of grandeur to the overall feel of the album. A softer yet
equally as tough side of Lee comes across on the emotive ‘Queen of Carolina’ which lowers the mood without lowering the
quality. A road song built around love adorns this sultry number bestowed with
some useful harmonica. The mood is retained with ‘East Side Blues’, or if anything a haunting sound makes it one of
the album’s darker corners. The other song to reside in the album’s first half,
or side A on the undoubtedly sought after vinyl format, is the solid twang
induced melody that emerges from ‘Where
Do We Belong’.
The second half opens with a couple of contrasting sounding
tracks in ‘Buffalo’ and ‘Honest Man’. The first has been
selected for album promotion and rolls along with a steady rock-laden groove,
while the latter is a more laid back offering. There is nothing wrong with a stab
at a little soul in any Americana album and the nearest you get to that on
AMERICAN DREAMER is the fascinating vibes emanating from ‘Know By Now’, reflecting Lee at his ear pleasing best. ‘Horses’ emerges as the album’s
penultimate track and if you are not transfixed by the sound of Frankie Lee now
then it’s perhaps time to seek pastures new. However the initiated will be
fully on board and absolutely on the radar of Lee’s enticing sound. Saving the
title track to the end proves a masterstroke for Lee, as the piano intro to ‘Americana Dreamer’ sets the scene for an
evocative number sealing the deal of this being a class album from start to
finish.
Frankie Lee has nailed a genre in his debut album with the
essential ingredients securely in place to exceed expectations in terms of
instrument sound, vocal feel and ability to feed the imaginative reservoirs of
an intriguing mind. AMERICAN DREAMER is a driving, gritty and expansive release
representing all that is alluring about a quality Americana record. A UK
suburban record collection has been enriched by the addition of this album and
it would be wise for like-minded people to do the same upon its October 2nd release.