Richard Ferreira
Somewhereville
Miranda Records
by William Michael Smith
 Now
here's an anomaly, a soul record coming from the heart of the
Plastic Factory.
Richard Ferreira's Somewhereville just may be the best
record to come out of Nashville, Tennessee in 2002. The head-twister
in all this is that it is as much a soul album as anything else
(it certainly isn't a country album). It has more in common with
Muscle Shoals and Memphis than with Music Row. Hell, this album
never heard of Music Row (although Music Row has certainly heard
of some of Ferreira's songwriting accomplices).
There isn't a single aspect we look for in great music that
isn't present here in overabundance. Ferreira's voice has incredible
range and a warm, gentle soulfulness that would be the envy of
99% of the singers in so-called Americana (but I suspect Ferreira
could work in any genre). If the mark of great singers is their
handling of ballads and quieter material, check out Ferreira's
performance on "House of Rain" or "One Step Closer."
Depending on the track, Somewhereville will remind listeners
of Van Morrison ("Bye Bye Baby"), Jackson Browne ("Invisible
Man"), Gordon Lightfoot ("Guilford Mill"), or
Levon Helm ("Moon Over Memphis"). But on tracks like
"I Give Myself Away," "Invisible Man," and
"House of Rain," we get a likeable Ferreira voice that
doesn't offer easy comparisons.
With Pinmonkey drummer Rick Schell anchoring the ensembles,
the album ranges from the brassy, buttery soul of artists like Morrison
or The Band to the pop smoothness of The Eagles with Glen Frey
leading the way with his trademark pure high vocal pitch.
The mellow arrangements featuring the warm, mellow Memphis groove
horns of Jim Hoke. There is everything here from a swampy Memphis
twang-rocker ("Memphis Money") to rootsy folk trio
work like "Guilford Mill" that could be mistaken for
a missing Lightfoot track. Elvis Costello's bluesy sophisticated
pieces also come to mind occasionally.
Ferreira's warm, elastic voice coupled to the ear-friendly
music and arrangements would be enough to make this a superior
album, but we get the added pleasure of top-flight songs. Ferreira
is one of the young turk left-side-of-Nashville writers who are
able to provide material to the commercial establishment but
who shine brighter when left to their own devices and natural
artistic tendencies. His cowriters on Somewhereville include
the noted Nashville vet Gwil Owen. On "One Step Closer,"
they offer a gentle ballad that would fit perfectly with The
Band, while their "House of Rain" is quiet twangy country-folk
with a primo lyric in any genre.
Greg Trooper is the writing partner on "Invisible Man,"
one of the album's most intense pieces with its rootsy wistful
verses and the soul-inflected, Van Morrison déjà
vu choruses. Hoke's horns give this track the perfect blue tint.
Baby I'm your invisible man
You can't see me for who I am
I'm everything I don't appear to be
I'm not a dream, I'm not a ghost
I'm just the one that loves you the most
Tell me why is that so hard to see
"Memphis Money," cowritten with Mark Irwin (who
wrote Alan Jackson's hit "Here In the Real World"),
is the roadhouse rocking-est track here. It's a tale of a man
with "a little job that I gotta do/There's a man down in
Memphis and he needs a ride/'Cross the might Mississippi to the
Arkansas side," and it gets way down in a swampy funk groove
with a sharp edge honed by Bill Dwyer's electric guitar leads.
If the phone rings twice don't pick it up
That just means your baby ran out of luck
But meanwhile honey fix up your hair
And wait for me 'til I get there
Tonight we'll party 'til the sky turns sunny
We'll be rollin' in Memphis money
Further evidence of Ferreira's songwriting and performing
talent is his working with songwriter/vocalist Mark Luna on the
title track. Former Texan Luna has written for Lee Roy Parnell
and Shawn Colvin and sung with everyone from Willie Nelson to
Faith Hill. For the rootsy title track, he and Ferreira have
touched on the universal emotions of leaving the old town, the
feelings of leaving kin and lovers behind. The chorus is a heart-grabber
that hints there may be extenuating circumstances forcing this
flight from the familiar to the unknown of Somewhereville.
Tell my mama I didn't hurt nobody
Tell her that I love her so
Tell my daddy I didn't hurt nobody
Well, that's all he needs to know
As good as the cowrites are, both of Ferreira's tunes here
are bona fide highlights. The bluesy soul of the twang-meets-horns
"Bye Bye Baby" sounds like a Van Morrison hit and is
the kind of song Sam and Dave or Otis Redding touched us all
with.
I can hear those cathedral bells as I'm walking down the
avenue
Someday I thought I'd hear them bells ringing
Now singing just for me and you
But sometimes love isn't fair
You can't cry for a love that isn't there
So bye bye baby goodbye
Ferreira's "Guildford Mill," which closes out the
album brilliantly, is a quiet Gordon Lightfoot paean to the working
man and the faceless, nameless, thankless drudgery of factory
work. It is an indictment of industrial society softened only
by the sympathy and humanity of Ferreira's lyrical aptitude.
This one goes directly back in a straight line to "The Wreck
of the Edmund Fitzgerald" or to "The Lonesome Death
of Hattie Carroll."
3 a.m. and 3 hours to go
And I stop and drink some coffee
Still warm from the stove
I think about my children
Sleeping in their beds
And I hope there'll be answer
To all the prayers I've said
The only doubt I have about Richard Ferreira and Somewhereville
is how will he ever top something this good the next time
he goes into the studio. Believe me, it's going to be a challenge.
Somewhereville would be a masterpiece for most artists.
Even on Music Row.
* www.milesofmusic.com or www.cdbaby.com Or if you're interested
in ultra-minimalist websites, there's www.RichardFerreira.com
Contact William Michael Smith at wms-at-rockzilla.net
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