Artist: Eliot Bronson
Album: Eliot Bronson
Label: Saturn 5 Records
Release Date: 10/21/2014
With a number of prestigious awards to his credit (including Creative Loafing‘s Songwriter of the Year honors in this year’s “Best of Atlanta” competition, top ranking in the Songwriting Contest at MerleFest, finalist status at the Kerrville Folk Festival, finalist status at the Rocky Mountain Folks Fest Songwriting Contest, and judicial recognition from the New Song Contest held at Lincoln Center), Eliot Bronson clearly seems poised to take center stage. Those accolades were obviously enough to make producer Dave Cobb take notice, and given his efforts with luminaries like Jason Isbell and Sturgill Simpson, Cobb clearly knows a thing or two about rising talent.
Thanks in part to Cobb’s assistance, Bronson’s fashioned an eponymous third album that fulfils the promise of all that he’s managed to achieve so far, a stirring series of rustic narratives and hard-luck encounters informed by a genuine journeyman ethic. He seems to sing from a somewhat detached perspective, with songs like “River Runs Dry,” “Baltimore” and “Time Ain’t Nothin’” stirred by solitary sentiments and the calming strum of acoustic guitars. There are exceptions however; the rowdy “Comin’ For Ya North Georgia Blues” in particular, as well as “New Pain,” a track with such a marked Dylan-like drawl that the master himself might even have considered it for Blood On The Tracks, if indeed it had been slated for the set list. Likewise, “Just Came Back To Tell You I’m Leaving” sounds well suited to Nashville, the TV show at least, if not the city itself.
It’s always exciting to discover an artist of this caliber, and given the fact Bronson’s just now coming into his own, even more accolades seem destined to follow. Eliot Bronson not only reflects well on this gifted singer/songwriter, but it also bodes well for the fame that’s sure to follow.
– Lee Zimmerman
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