Artist:     Ben Reel

Album:     The Nashville Calling

Label:     Reel Records

Release Date:     3.27.20

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Often compared to Bruce Springsteen, Irish troubadour Ben Reel was born to lift the downtrodden to their feet with just his strong, benevolent vocals, to comfort the weary and pen open-hearted love songs, while rousing humanity from its spiritual and intellectual torpor. He’s been preparing for these roles all his life.

When the occasion calls for it, Reel can run, too, as he does with the rousing, up-tempo roots rock of “New Jerusalem,” off his latest album The Nashville Calling, with its sturdy architecture of warm Southern soul, jangly pop, blue-collar folk and righteous Americana. Standing on his soap box in the public square, spurred on by twangy, rollicking instrumental combustion, Reel delivers a fiery prophecy peppered with religious imagery, calling on those that are the most resistant to change to evolve and adapt to the times. Mostly though, Reel sells hope and resiliency, as the slow-building anthem “All In Good Time” can’t hold back a rising tide of optimism and the folky hooks and determined grit of “Tough People” refuse to knuckle under.

Softer and more tender, “Round The Bend” anticipates better days, while the rich, soulful eddies of a rippling “Safe and Sound” and a dark, bluesy “Like a Breeze” are seductive, much like the windy backing vocals provided by Reel’s wife, Julieanne Black Reel. On the wafting “Fine Wine,” with its simmering organ, it seems as if Reel is talking directly to her, remarking with disbelieving wonder on how age doesn’t diminish her beauty, whereas “Up There In The Sky” wrangles with slightly distorted electric guitars in a gnarly country-rock dust-up with Neil Young’s past and the spare, spindly reading of the Dylanesque “Broken” talks of surviving the debilitating everyday problems of troubled people.

Produced by Will Kimbrough and Tommy Womack, The Nashville Calling is Reel’s ninth record, and probably his most passionate and engaging work to date, as they flesh out Reel’s acoustic tendencies with everything from Womack’s electric guitar bite to Kimbrough’s welcome accents of mandolin, various keyboards and dobro. Their nuanced and wholly authentic approach to music-making undeniably had an impact on the recording, as did the presence of the E Street Band’s Garry Tallent and his sly, melodic bass underpinnings. But, in the end, it’s Reel’s fervent, robust singing and sincere, compassionate songwriting, undoubtedly influenced by his Northern Ireland upbringing, that win the day. He has certainly found his calling.

—Peter Lindblad