Spencer Day – Vagabond (2009)
Artist : Spencer Day
Album : Vagabond
Released Date : September 8, 2009
Label : Concord Records
It’s often difficult to categorize an artist into one particular box nowadays. With broad range of genres and styles, maybe thousands of them, there are more and more artists who have big passion to explore more layers of music instead of dwelling into a specific style. Some even dare to have the unthinkable journey where different dimensions seem to collide with each other that could create a new genre in the future. Spencer Day is definately one of them. This remarkable artist is releasing his brand new album entitled “Vagabond” under the flag of Concord Records for the very first time.
Seeing through his journey, we’ll know what built him. He was born in Utah, raised in rural area of Arizona and currently living in Los Angeles. All along the way he has wandered through the diverse landscape of American style of music. He grew up listening to a wide variety of composers such as Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Joni Michell, John Lennon and Paul Simon, and also absorbs “all those old MGM musicals” he watched as a kid. All these life experience has built his creativity artisticly that developed from numerous seeds. When you listen to him, you’ll know that Spencer Day inherits so many different source of music to create his own style. Jazz, folk/country, traditional pop, contemporary/modern pop, classical, soul, gospel, soft rock even the theatrical music, all are blended into one harmoniously with no boundary. Being blessed as a vocalist, songwriter and pianist with fresh and high creativity makes him able to create something remarkable from all these ingredients. What he wanted to create is a musical hybrid, and this can be found in his soon to be released album “Vagabond”. “I’ve drawn from the Great American Songbook quite a bit in the past, but I really wanted to infuse this album with a more contemporary aesthetic, and also draw on some influences from the early ‘60s, like Burt Bacharach, Roy Orbison and Dusty Springfield. I wanted to create a sound that could stand alone and not be easily put into one category, but at the same time appeal to a broad range of listeners.” says Day. Well, happy to say he successfully and surprisingly did it.
His soft pleasantful crooning baritone blends with superb piano play in very melodious compositions. It’s like Jamie Cullum in wider musical exploration, it’s like Michael Buble, Peter Cincotti, Norah Jones and the operatic/chamber pop artist Rufus Wainwright in one. It doesn’t stop there, because we can also feel the presence of the young Paul Simon, Roy Orbison, Dusty Springfield as he told, plus Burt Bacharach’s taste of creating melodious song, brilliant lyrics and music of Gershwin, and delightful touch from the classical collection of Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Reynaldo Hahn, Henri Duparc and other impressionists. Spencer Day magically combined these all to craft something that sounds traditional but at the same time feels fresh and modern. And here we find Day’s kind of music, a fine blend that will never be possible to place into one particular category.
Let’s see what he presents in the album. You’ll get the different aura right from the start. The album begins with an interesting violin pizz on “Till You Come To Me”. This song that talks about a plea to a former lover has delightful melody that will make you pat your finger. Day gets support heavily from bassist Geoff Brennan and guitar/cellist/backup vocalist Yair Evnine on this one. “Someday” is a nice folk-ish and blue-ish piano recital in the tradition of Norah Jones that serves as sweet as honey. The third song, “Everybody Knows (The Family Skeleton)” is another nice going song about family secrets. The meditative “Weeping Willow” speaks about the story of roadside tree from the poetical perspective, delivers in nice string accompaniment. “Joe” appears like Daniel Powter’s current pop rock style, describes the life of a young man leaving his town to take chances in bigger city and then filled with fear that his ambition would lead to a unavoidable fall.
The title track “Vagabond” that speaks loud about a restless heart on soul searching comes with a sweet piano play that suits his vocal tone. “Summer” is a reflection serves in gentle breezing melody. “Little Soldier” is another visit to the fresh country folk scene. This is an interesting song about a young child leaving his home for the first time. But at given time we live today where there are wars everywhere, this song might has different perspective. It’s sad but encouraging at the same time. Day sees it as the bright side of goodbyes. “Out of My Hands” has the sense of stunning pearly cinematic musical piece that describes about life’s destiny that sometimes doesn’t go the way we want it to. “I Got a Mind To Tell You” starts just as sweet as the classic “Stars Fell on Alabama”. This song also reflect the memorable pop in the 50’s but soaked in jazz and blues. The orchestral “Maybe (Tuesday Morning)” is another example of Day’s eclectic taste. This song rattles off a set of questions that we might have in our life too, the questions that sometimes have no answers. At times the questions could go a little bit frantic, and Day describes those so well. “25″ is an introspective song of what you have become when you reach that certain age. This song goes with a nice blend of folk, sweet rock and a slight gospel taste. “A Better Way” shows Day’s concern of how the world and its society goes today. People tends to be more aggressive, greedy and selfish, the politics of fear, distrust and war, trying to solve the solution in wrong ways, and he suggests us all to find a better way. “We got to comprehend it’s not us or them, it’s the human race trying to survive” Day wrote brilliantly. As one part of the song mentioned “too many killing in the name of God”, this becomes relevant as a wake up call as the Indonesian has just suffered recently with the terrorist bombings. I’d take this one as a highlight anytime, for the massive reminder from Day to all of us. Sadly, that’s the end of the album. Wish I could have more.
Spencer Day’s “Vagabond” is a showcase of creativity. It’s rainbow-like collections in full color packed in harmonious ear-cachy melodies. Day has a very nice vocal tone of smooth, soft and sweet baritone, interesting blended style of piano playing, but it’s the compositions and lyrics writing that steal my mind. Above all, everything Day presents in this album is pure and honest, sincerely from his heart. “Vagabond” is the album that will surely catapult him to the top list of modern singer-pianist-songwiters across genres. With the very wide variety of styles he blends together, Day’s first on Concord “Vagabond” will definitely reach the hearts of everyone.
Tracklistings:
1. Till You Come to Me
2. Someday
3. Everybody Knows (The Family Skeleton)
4. Weeping Willow
5. Joe
6. Vagabond
7. Summer
8. Vagabond Reprise
9. Little Soldier
10. Out of My Hands
11. I Got a Mind to Tell You
12. Maybe (Tuesday Morning)
13. 25
14. A Better Way
GET ONE FREE DOWNLOAD From the album : Spencer Day – A Better Way (Right click on the link and “save target/link as”)
Purchase Spencer Day – Vagabond at Amazon.com
For more info, log on to Spencer Day’s official myspace and website
Reviewed by: Riandy Kurniawan
Special thanks to :
Edria
pictures credit to Greg Allen
Check out Spencer Day recent appearance on ‘The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson:
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