Sadly-missed singer/songwriter gives us one more show
Artiste: Dan Fogelberg
Nationality: American
Album: Love in time
Year: 2009
Label: Full Moon
Genre: Rock/Folk
Tracks:
Love in time
Soft voice
So many changes
Come to the harbour
A growing time
The colours of Eve
Diamonds to dust
The nature of the game
Sometimes a song
Days to come
Birds
Chronological position: Final (posthumous) album
Familiarity: Everything! I've been a Fogelberg fan since I heard “Longer” when I were a kid. “Phoenix”, “Home free”, “Exiles”, “Souvenirs”, “The innocent age”, “Windows and walls”, “Nether lands”, “High country snows”, “The wild places”, "Full circle", "Twin sons", "River of souls"...
Interesting factoid: This album is a posthumous release of new material from a sadly-departed and sorely missed music icon, at least for me.
Initial impression: Oh Jesus! It's like the guy's alive again! But he's not...
Best track(s): Soft voice, Come to the harbour, The colour of Eve, Nature of the game, Sometimes a song, Birds
Worst track(s): You're kidding, right?
Comments: Anyone who reads my main journal, or who knows me, knows of my reverence for the late Dan Fogelberg. I have all his albums, and his death in 2007 hit me hard: I had not even realised he was suffering from cancer, and his loss is a huge blow. This album was in fact compiled by his widow two years after his death, so rather than seem a cheap attempt to cash-in on his untimely death --- though there are probably not that many who would know or care anyway, sadly --- this becomes a celebration of the man and his music, and instead of being a collection of his best-known songs, these are all originals.
Dan plays all instruments on the previously-recorded but never released tracks, and although it's bittersweet to hear him sing, as it were, from beyond, it's comforting and a great pleasure to have, against all odds, new material from a man who has now been five years dead. The opener might surprise many non-fans, being rather uptempo and rocky, but Dan could rock out with the best of them when he was alive, a fact lost on many people, and the title track here is no exception, with some great guitar and piano. Like most of his songs, it looks forward and speaks of hope and redemption in the face of despair, all the more poignant due to the circumstances.
I've chose this for “Bitesize” review because it is in fact the only one of his records I have but have never listened to, and I expect nothing more than what I always got with a Dan Fogelberg album: wonderful ballads, uptempo rock songs, songs about people and places, stories set to music, music that comes direct from the writer's heart. And so it proves. There's a beautiful and expressive piano and keyboard section in
Soft voice that just epitomises a man who was a wonderful singer as well as a multi-instrumentalist, and I hear echoes of his debut, “Home free” in this song, with a certain sense of country and folk influences, and a great little waltz ballad in
Come to the harbour, with a slower version of the melody from
Nexus off the “Innocent age” album. Admit it: you haven't a clue what I'm talking about, do you?
It's actually getting a little upsetting. Don't laugh. Just let me sit here and listen for a while...
One thing Dan excelled at of course was beautiful, heartfelt, touching ballads, and “The colours of Eve” is another, with beautiful piano and heartbreaking vocal, while “Diamonds to dust” is a big heavy country tapper, running on the back of a heavy organ and jangly guitar. But if you want expertise on the guitar, look no further than
Nature of the game --- I think that could be one of those dobro things. Definitely sounds steel anyway. The longest track, it's virtually Delta blues. Take that, ye who say Dan was only good for ballads!
The song that started it all, written by Dan as a Valentine's Day present to his wife two years before his death is next, and
Sometimes a song is especially bittersweet with its backstory, the simplest of lovesongs but one of the very last Dan would ever write. Stop! I'm tearing up again. Gonna have to bring this to a close now.
I'd urge you to check out Dan's music for yourself. You may know the classics ---
Run for the roses, Longer, Leader of the band, Same old lang syne --- but there's so much more there to be discovered from one of the most underrated singer/songwriters of our age. Ah, you say you will check him out, but you know you won't. Well, your loss.
Overall impression: God damn it Dan, I miss you!
Intention: At some point I'm going to listen to everything of his, in chronological order, and he's definitely down for a special feature on “The Playlist of Life” soon. Real soon.