Americana Music Reviews

To many Texas music fans, Nathan Hamilton is a small fish in the big pool of talent that Texas boasts. However, recent indications show that Hamilton is, or least should be, rapidly moving up the musical food chain. In 2000, Hamilton won the coveted Kerrville New Folk Award, which placed him in the company of other Texas notables such as Robert Earl Keen, Lyle Lovett, and Slaid Cleaves. Not a bad school of fish to swim with, especially if upstream is the direction you want to be heading. Now, with his second solo release, All For Love and Wages, Hamilton seems perched to break the folk scene wide open.

Hamilton doesn't strike one as that typical sensitive type singer songwriter one often expects to hear in the world of "folk" music. There is no pulling punches in either his lyrics or his music. Both are hard hitting and edgy. He focuses on topics that many songwriters attempt to stir clear of, and then brings them home to the listener with a depth and poignancy few can attain. Whereas many songwriters can create a memorable character while others can spin a great tale, Hamilton can do both expertly. The characters in his tales take on a life of their own. It is easy for the listener to visualize Diego from the song "Wages" and place him in the inner-city industrial setting that Hamilton provides. On the very next track Hamilton sweeps us away to an early 20th century northern Mexican landscape, again painting a very vivid and captivating portrait, this time of revolution and revenge. Hamilton has the knack of not just pulling the listener into his songs, but actually making them a part of his music.

While Hamilton may choose to swim in a direction that others disdain by writing about hard-hitting topics, he can lend a very human touch to them, making his songs extremely memorable. Listen as he describes the domino effect that a wife suffering from alcoholism has on a family in "Bottle in the Bathroom:"

The foreman calls me from the site,
Says, "Man you got some trouble back at home.
Your six year old is calling,
Says she's been left there alone.
Now I know we all have troubles boy,
Yeah we all got our problems son,
But that's the seventh time this month
One more time and your time here is done.
I like the work you're doing, so I hope you work things out."
But my time here is now over, of that I have no doubt.

The finality in the tone of the words here lets us know this is something the narrator has been through many times before. The human element in this song is defined by contrasting the family with the very "normal" seeming surroundings they are placed in. A touch one may expect to find more in visual art than in music. Yet Hamilton's songs are very visual.

For all the toughness and grit that Hamilton's songs and characters possess, they are all tempered with wit and intelligence. Case in point is the closing lines from "Shape I'm In," a song about being, or rather not being, victims:

Well judge me not lest you be judged
And save yourself some hurt.
Because if you're throwing your stone
I'm throwing mine,
And we'll see which one falls first.

The music throughout All For Love and Wages is exceptional, thanks in large part to the talents of Hamilton's band No Deal, which consists of Rob Gaines on drums, Billy Brett Malkus on guitar, and Mike Stevenson on bass. They can rock with the best of them, and then turn around and subdue their sound for a more low key number. From hearing their chemistry on a studio CD, I can only imagine the program that this band must deliver live. (The words "kick ass" keep rolling around my brain.)

If you are looking for an album that breaks the mold where folk music is concerned, and delivers all that is promised and more by the pundits and press agents, then look no further than All For Love and Wages. Superbly written and performed, it is certain to win Hamilton his deserved recognition and place him in the company of some of Texas' more renowned singer/songwriters.

*Those interested in getting more info on this very talented songwriter will find that www.nathanhamilton.com currently just provides a link to an online music retailer where All For Love and Wages can be purchased. However, if you are looking for a little more content, let me suggest that you check out www.steppinstonerecords.com/lovewages.htm.


You can contact Scott Snidow at: scott-at-rockzilla.net

 
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