Artist: Austin Meade
Album: Waves
Label: 1703 Records
Release Date: 3.1.2019
Waves comes at us from a young Texan guitar-slinger, a guy with a ear for some tingling melody and lyrical flow. Meade can sure pack a punch with his remarkable power and tasty fretwork that just about always manages to hit that sweet southern soul spot. In ways, it’s kind of tricky to simply place this guy and his music in any single box. With shades of rock, soulful slithers and driving guitar-led chops, Meade is clearly not a guy likely to be restrained or contained by the normal musical orthodoxy.
If anything, with Waves, Meade pulls out all the stops to deliver an album that is a genuine winner. Its southern-rock edge has shimmering qualities that bring back memories of the late genre master, Greg Allman, while at others it just rolls along with a full-tilt, foot-to-the-floor sort of rock vibe. Wherever he goes, Meade sure takes you with him for the ride.
Meade himself views the album as being something a bit special, a project he’s been working on, polishing and refining for some time now: the album and its title echo his thoughts on life itself, with elements of every kind coming at you in waves. His ’70s vibe, look and approach is surprisingly refreshing in the twenty-first century where music is often premeditated and too often self-indulgent. Instead, Meade carries the listener off to a time when music was made to last, to bring a smile, a whirling dance-beat and a sense of simple joy. And that can’t be a bad thing, in my book.
—Iain Patience
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