CD Review of...
Johnathan Rice
“Trouble is Real”
By Debi Rotmil
Deep within the wide-eyed gaze of Johnathan Rice, there seems to be many roads traveled, and a desire to give listeners a chance to enter his world. On his debut album "Trouble is Real" (Warner/Reprise), he unleashes a heady blend of eclectic, lush, intelligent sounds, drawing one into an atmospheric space that is hard to shake once the first note is played.
"Short Song For Strings" ushers the listener into this body of work with a mourning, haunting bevy of sustained violins and vibrating guitar. It sets the tone as it melts beautifully into "Break so Easy", itself an innocent, meandering track that is stuck in a daydream. "My Mother's Son" blows through like a blustery autumn morning as he sings, "All the Protestant girls/they're all swinging their hips/fresh coats of red on their lips/in a solar eclipse", until out of nowhere, startling orchestral strings, rising in full crescendo, jolts him into reality as his voice rages. Just when you think you've got him down as a lonesome, angst filled troubadour, he throws us a curve with the sweet, scratchy bluegrass sound of "Put Me in Your Holy War", that comes across like a Library of Congress treasure, singing in the guise of a gung-ho soldier, idealistically ready to shed his blood and "lay his body down". "Stay at Home" reaches into Beatles territory, with a dancing stride piano and a whimsical melody. Rice keeps it real with a husky, sleepy voice that seems to have weathered many miles.
Whether he's kicking ass on "Salvation Day", throwing a bit of dance rhythm in "Leave the Light On", or getting low down in The Band inspired "Lady Memphis", Rice never tires of giving you something new to explore. For someone debuting on a big time label, he avoids the errors of many first time artists who tend to be too eager to please, too verbose, too trendy, or too over the top. Instead, he is economical in his delivery, dishing up doses of fusion music, punctuated by strings and vocal, allowing the listener to dwell within a blend of beau colic sounds. This is only his first album. Imagine what he'll be like in five years from now. Instead of listening to his world, we may be hearing him from the stratosphere.