Artist: Bob Bradshaw
Album: The Ghost Light
Label: Fluke
Release Date: 4.30.2021
Singer-songwriter Bob Bradshaw weaves his stories through a blend of roots music forms, drawing from his background as a prose writer and frontman for a rock ‘n’ roll band. Prior to the pandemic, Bradshaw was a live fixture in New England. The Ghost Light, referencing that single light in the theater that stays on after performers and audience have left the premises, is a pandemic-induced metaphor for his ninth studio album. Somehow, he maintains cohesion with 12 vastly different stories, self-contained and not bound by any theme, nor by a consistent set of musicians. Instead, the backing configurations change on just about each tune.
Here, character portraits and short stories are often fleshed out by inventive arrangements. Some of these are very relatable, such as his opening “Songs on the Radio,” evoking the memory of a long lost romance while others such as “Niagara Barrel Ride Blues” are just fun stories, or the pirate lured to death by sirens in “Light of the Moon.” His attention to detail in the lyrics makes these songs cinematic. Take, for example, the opener: “Sweet sounds from a top-down powder-blue Camaro” or “In a cask of iron-hoop bolted/Kentucky oak/Trust my cooper knows his trade” from the Niagara Falls tune.
Bradshaw works with his core electric band (guitarists Andrew stern and Andy Santospago, bassist Ed Lucie, and drummer Mike Connors and remotely he enlisted drummer/producer Dave Brohy (Patty Larkin, Eli “Paperboy” Reed), bassist engineer Dave Westner (Time Gearan, Peter Wolf), and bassist Zachariah Hickman (Josh Ritter, Ray LaMontagne), in large part depending on what suited the song best. He co-wrote many of the songs, working with his West Coast Resident Aliens bandmate Scoop McGuire and his Boston cohorts Santospago and John Sheeran.
While there’s mostly a flowing, atmospheric, melancholy color to the first half of the album, marked perhaps best by “Blue” where another ex-Resident Alien Chad Manning adds fiddle to the spare “She’s Gone for Good.” Soul and James Rohr’s B3 marks “Gone” while “Dream,” though an original, carries a Roy Orbison quality. The sound then dramatically shifts into roaring rock n’ roll on “21st Century Blues” driven by the twin guitar thrust of Santospago and Stern.
“Sideways” gets a lift from Argentinian bandoneon player Francisco Martinez Herrera in its twisting tang tale, marked by an interesting couple who “can only see the world askew” and “Among the few who prefer always to take a sideways view.” There’s a swaying, throbbing waves-at-sea dynamic to “Light of the Moon” and a swirling sense of confusion with a healthy use of echoes for “In the Dark.” Finally, the Niagara Barrel Ride Blues,” a standout track, is rendered alone by Bradshaw on his resonator guitar, making it the pure lone blues track.
Spend some time with these short vignettes and follow his stories as they unfold. That alone can be riveting on one level, add in the emotions conveyed, and the varied musical support and you’re in for a rewarding listen.
—Jim Hynes
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