Pulled out the Ben Taylor CD I fell in love with this summer and slipped in Dusty Pas’cal. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I mean when you are my height, tall people are always a little larger than life. And Dusty is tall like a pine tree.
This all started one night as I was rushing into the P&C. Dusty Pas’cal’s picture was on the glass door I pushed. It was a pretty cool picture too. It said something about a CD release party on Oct. 7 at Joe’s Pasta Garage.
The next morning, I saw Dusty at the Byrne Dairy and I said, “You got a CD.”
Well, now here I was not knowing what to expect, I mean this is a local business guy, who you see around town carrying babies on his back. He also can draw cartoons. I knew he played and sang, as Ed Putnam sent an article in to the Press once about being pleasant surprised and entertained by Dusty performing at the Creekside coffeehouse. Still, I wasn’t sure.
But that’s all behind me now.
The first thing that struck me was the production quality of this recording. High.
The next was his voice. There was this emotion in it, a catch. A quality, I guess, I might term as able to phrase. I mean, I’m coming from nowhere, but this voice had been around the block a few times, like when you learn to ride a bicycle, only a few weeks later. He knew how to use it and it was easy, comfortable, as if he sang rather than spoke in his everyday.
It was dark out, and I was in a car with a friend driving out into the country.
I said, “Listen to this arrangement.”
It at first sounded simple, yet it really wasn’t — great guitar picking, strumming, electric licks and beautiful piano music.
His sound was his own. If I had to liken it to anyone it might be Steve Forbert, who I haven’t heard for some 25 years, when he was up at the Jab on the hill in Syracuse. And also some of the keyboards reminded me of the piano on Mary Chapin Carpenter’s “Stones in the Road” CD. It’s elegant and pretty and meaningful.
Lastly, I heard Dusty’s lyrics, which are dead on, no extra words.
Enough to tell his story, which I could turn into my story. Not sure how one does that but he does it.
It’s folk in that he is storytelling with music to match. Wow.
I fell for this music right away, which is rare. If you are up for a good listen, check it out. The CD is titled “Home,” as is the name of the first track. I felt at home and ultimately in the room.
If you are up for a good listen, check it out.
