Chuck Ragan, The Ever Burning Light
The legendary American songwriter Chuck Ragan returns from life on the road to give the peopleTill Midnight.
Having recently organized The Revival Tour as well as releasing the book The Road Most Traveled, it seemed impossible that Chuck would find time to return to the studio, but some dreams really do come true. The last few years and a million miles of road have amounted to ten incredible stories on the full length record Till Midnight out on Side One Dummy on March 25.
Ragan’s voice is unparalleled; he is everything that’s good and gruff and true. His rough vocal delivery oozes with sincerity and purpose like a street church minister preaching the good book, preaching the common plight.
There is a timelessness to Ragan’s music. It does not adhere to fashion or a certain locale. The songs sound like the highways and byways that connect this great continent. The finger picking over four on the floor kick drum in “Something May Catch Fire” sounds like driving along a winding coast. The lazy swing of “Wake With You” evokes the feeling of a soft southern night with slow dancing strings that guide the melody. Jump to “Revved” and some Midwest country pedal steel takes the listener through the lonesome highways of the Dust Bowl: the same highways that Woody Guthrie once traveled in search of stories and social change. The vagabond-folk rock sound has come a long way since Guthrie but I can’t think of a better ambassador for the current sound than Chuck Ragan. On tracks like “Gave My Heart Out”, “Whistleblowers Song” and “For All We Care,” Ragan encompasses a socially conscious mind while playing on the heartstrings of blue-collar woes. These songs walk somewhere between falling in love and marching in the picket line.
n “Non Typical,” Ragan says “I need you, like I need all my blood in my veins.” My response is that you need Chuck Ragan like the highway needs a song.
Out on March 25,Till Midnight delivers the goods from America’s rambling folk rock poet, Chuck Ragan.
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