Just a small update today with a quick look at the album New York Town by songwriter Israel Nash Gripka. I'm a little late on this one seeing as how it's been out since the spring, but I just discovered it recently and have been enjoying it quite a bit lately. Better late than never, I'm told.Most reviews of this record that I've read point out a similarity to Gold era Ryan Adams. The cover photo even heavily recalls Adams' "New York, New York" video and could easily be the tattered wallet photo mentioned in the second verse of that song. Gripka's album opening "Evening" speaks of hitting the ground running and delivers on that promise with an uptempo acoustic shuffle that gets things off to a great start. He follows that with "Pray for Rain," a tune that could have easily been placed on any of John Fogerty's studio albums without anyone noticing. He seamlessly recreates Fogerty's trademarked Bayou stew right down to the vocals. Things only get better from there.
Here's a taste...
P.S.: Don't forget to register for the Kristofferson Kontest I'm running right now. Just go read this post and leave a comment with your email address or send me an email with "Kristofferson Kontest" as the subject. I'll randomly pick one name out of a hat on Monday, and the winner gets a Deluxe Edition copy of Kristofferson's new album Closer to the Bone.
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2 comments:
Great album this, one of my favourites of the year so far and definitely best debut release of 09 for me.
I noticed the resemblance to Ryan's NY, NY video as soon as the page loaded. But even scarier was the similarity between Evening and Cold Roses' Let It Ride in both its jangly flow and melody.
Ryan's got so much stuff out there, I'm not sure I need anyone else to provide it for me.
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