![]() The originality is hard fought and can only come through a life that, in such a short time, has been strewn a sense of tragedy, and a weary acceptance of all that has gone before. It is what makes the greatest of our songwriters unique the world over. ![]() His voice carries words that are dense with meaning, poetry, imagery of love, regret, resignation, redemption, and renewal. There is something in the timbre of Justin’s of his voice that feels as if he’s seen the same view of life as the best of our songwriting legends. It’s what draws us to Dylan, Waits, Cohen, Williams, and Van Zandt. Justin’s familiarity finds a thread in his personal experience of the audience connecting sonically with a songwriter whose own life and perceptions are common to their own. He is writing and singing his way to illumination that leads him to life, revealed and redeemed. As his life story reveals, his pursuit in song is quite the opposite. But this lonesome troubadour isn’t chasing these songs to a pre-mature demise. It’s the sound of being chased by life’s demons and the wisdom to know the cost of what he sings about. ![]() It’s the lonely sound in the wind of his voice that engages and invites us to join him. In their Zen-Gestalt, it’s all there at the core of his sound. He may be chasing familiar shadows, but they’re the same shadows once Hank Williams once pursued to an early grave. But, that’s not it.This original and familiar sounding singer-songwriter is not haunted by any ghost, but maybe is more accurate to say, he is haunted by the same ghost that traveled with Townes, but now it pursues Justin John Rodriguez and brings him the poetic vision of unique country songs. It’s tempting to believe somewhere deep in his songwriter’s heart, he is haunted, even driven, by the ghost of Townes Van Zandt. On first hearing Justin John Rodriguez there is a strong sense of originality that rubs up against the familiarity of his lyrical country-blues sound. Welcome to the world of Justin John Rodriguez. But, in the final analysis, while he stands in the musical ancestry of such great artists, his mark is his own as he casts his haunted shadow on the broken road that lay ahead of him illuminated by a light that shines through the joys and tragedies of his 44 years of life. In the end, he sits in the backyard garden as he calls up the spirit of legends like Hank Williams, Townes Van Zandt, the father and son Earles, and Kris Kristofferson. It is a continuous way of a musical Shaman who casts spells with stories and songs that come from the deepest chamber of his heart. And the redemption from the demons that have pursued him is not broken. The road is broken with a few regrets, some wasted years, some restored by the music he has journeyed with and his centered confidence in his own songster skills. There is a tear in his voice that belongs to his travels along an American highway. His songs stir, reach deep into the heart of love lost, found, and lost again. The troubadour sits in a backyard garden a few miles from the Mexican border in Southern California, safe from the storms of his storied past as he sings out to a coyote full-moon. The ghost of Townes Van Zandt pursues this San Diego singer-songwriter from a childhood immersed in music and travel, to hard-core punk, power-punk, noir, alt country-rock, and Americana-roots music.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |