Published on Jul 4, 2001
Tim Easton is the kind of artist who can get you up from your
easy chair to dance, or he can lull you to sleep with his haunting
melodies. Just one listen to his latest solo project,
The Truth About Us, will make you feel like you’ve been
listening to Easton’s music for a lifetime. It’s instantly
approachable while sounding fresher than a lot of the country-folk
out there today.
Vocally, Easton reminds the listener of a less-nasal Jakob
Dylan, and his way with words also draws that parallel. Musically,
though, Easton is closer to the
Nashville Skyline-era Bob Dylan, daring to work steel guitar
into the song in a way that makes the instrument sound unique –
almost as if this kind of view of the pedal steel had never been
considered before.
Easton hits his creative peak on songs like “Happy Now” (an
interesting peek at life on the outside… and a bit haunting at
times thanks to the portraits Easton paints), “Out Of Your Life”
(another stark picture of life and the mistakes we make in it) and
“Soup Can Telephone Game Conversation”. Even adding Victoria
Williams (who, admittedly, is not one of my favorite artists on the
planet) feels right to the atmosphere and texture that Easton
creates on
The Truth About Us.
Although there are the occasional glimpses of hope that Easton
offers in his lyrics (“Carry Me”), the bulk of this album is mired
in despair and in the stories of the downtrodden. Yet Easton is
able to take a song like “I Would Have Married You” or “Downtown
Lights” and turn it from a dark etching of the soul into a piece of
music that comes dangerously close to obliterating the original
message. To his credit, he’s still able to keep the basic flavor of
the story alive, which ends up being a musical paradigm, balancing
the darkness of the words with the energy of the music. It takes
talent to pull such a stunt off, and Easton has it by the
boatload.
The Truth About Us is not the feel-good album of the year,
but I’m certain Easton never meant it to be that. Instead, it’s a
personal glimpse into a side of life that many don’t dare to
approach with their music… and we should be thankful that Easton
is willing to shine a light onto that darkness.