Artist: Luke Spehar
Album: The Pilgrim
Label: Self-released
Release Date: 8.31.18
Armed with a fine sounding guitar and voice reminiscent at times (in the higher register) of a young Art Garfunkel, Luke has put together a seven-song selection of original tunes, with the seventh noted as a bonus track. I find that a little unorthodox, seeing that the un bonus tracks fall short of a normal outing by at least four tunes. But making a high quality record with five supporting musicians is not a cheap undertaking when you’re self-funded.
Lyrically he covers familiar ground of many singer songwriters before him. The road, choices to make, love songs, quality time with friends and family and self-reflection. His opening track “The Farmer” explores the values of folks who stayed grounded from the cradle to the grave and “America and Me” that follows it, the wanderlust of a Woody Guthrie disciple. Both tunes show strong and very clean guitar picking. Luke certainly has guitar chops and I would think he could have benefited by including an instrumental. The bonus track, “Joshua” is anthemic, and the most different in both music and production wise.
—Ken Spooner
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