MP3 Fur Dixon and Steve Werner - Travelers
Folk/Americana
10 MP3 Songs in this album (42:57) !
Related styles: COUNTRY: Americana, FOLK: Traditional Folk
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Details:
"Travelers" is here! I''ve been listening to songs from this release by Fur Dixon and Steve Werner at most of their shows I''ve been to lately, and I was hungry to get them home! And now I can, and you can, too.
As the title suggests, these are songs about the love of the road. Ten new jewels of Americana/Cowboy Folk original songwriting from these two (with help from Ric Taylor) sparkle out at you from this album, ranging from the love of freedom and fireside friendship, wide open-space sadness and heartbreak, to the down-and-out joy of "being exactly who I am." Man, it doesn''t get any better than this. These folks are so downright lovely honest that it makes you weep! Their work is so stylistically consistent that you know you''ve found a real authentic treasure. The cowboy/Americana sound in this day and age just begs for Fur and Steve to sing and play and write just as they do. I just want to sit at their feet and sing along for pure love and longing and happiness. When I hear them, I somehow know I''ve been told exactly how it is.
Fur has collaborated with Ric Taylor on the song "Journey to Another Side" which opens the album. It''s a perfect duo with number two, Steve''s "Road Outside My Door." They seem to be saying the same things from slightly different points of view, but then you know that Steve and Fur agree that they want to get going. Fur writes sweetly in "Summer''s Gone Again" and with Ric Taylor writes the poignant "If I Was Free," both songs of loss in different scenes. The melodies are rich and beautiful and can sometimes surprise you with their complexity when you think you have these two all figured out.
Steve and Fur have this really wonderful way of writing natural sing-alongs that actually contain real messages, and the fourth cut is the perfect "Homesick for the Highway Blues" from Steve Werner that absolutely puts me in mind of Hank Williams, and not just for the use of the word "homesick"-- it''s just a great old-fashioned way of constructing classic cowboy songs. It''s as simple and pure, funny, sweet and easy as you could get, and you''ll be singing before the second chorus gets started. Steve is impressive as a writer for the way he can marry humor and pathos, put them right up together, side by side (just like life), and you find yourself laughing and crying and singing all at the same time. However, one offering on this album is just way above and beyond: the powerfully classic "Scars" is the big, big Kahuna on this CD. It''s a song that everyone over the age of whatever should hear and memorize. Anyone who can look back will feel the power of its naked intimacy, and weep for the pure fact of pain and experience. Then by the end you feel damned proud of yourself. He sings of memory and hurt, the scars visible and not, he sings, “I can’t bury them so I carry them and I wear them like a crown" And if you feel it, you realize that you do, too. He likens each scar to a "crooked little roadmap of the life that I have led" Isn''t that just right? This song will haunt me and stay with me for a long time, and I''m glad.
Other players on this record are great and add a lot, especially Brantley Kearns on fiddle, playing tastily on several cuts. The others are Cliff Wagner on banjo, George Pandis on trumpet, Gary Johnson on accordian, John McDuffie on pedal steel and dobro and Paul Marshall on bass. The real core, though is Steve and Fur playing their songs and singing their great harmonies. The purity and charm of their full sweet guitars is a perfect match for what they sing about: the grace and yearning and beauty of our lives lived in the joy of simple harmony.
The title cut is by Fur and, as always she is right on top of it with her theme of change is coming, and she couldn''t be more right. And glory hallelujah, we have it to look forward to! and in the meantime, we can sing. Sing along with Fur and Steve and feel happy in the midst of the sadness, joy an d laughter. At the end, Steve''s "Friends Around the Fire" makes you feel that everything''s going to be alright – the human spirit is alive and well and thriving, and for that, I would put my money down."
Susie Glaze
"A phenomenal duo, these two could easily get a motion picture song placement and be instant stars. Both are top-drawer songwriters, and together their vocal harmonies and complementary guitar licks create rootsy road music worthy of Woody Guthrie at his feel-good best. The town is still abuzz from their fall ''08 show at https://www.tradebit.comty"
Larry Wines, Host of radio’s “Tied to the Tracks”
“With ever-growing audiences of fans and friends, the popularity of this duo continues to grow by leaps and bounds.”
—Carl Gage, Folkworks
Full review at: https://www.tradebit.com
"Fur and Steve have got it all! Great tunes, hot licks, dynamite harmonies and loads of talent. I love ''em."
—Sourdough Slim, Legendary Western Entertainer