Lenny Solomon "Maybe Today" (Not Life Threatening Music 2007)

Country with a hint of the enigmatic

For Lenny Solomon, writing and playing music is as much a part of who he is as it is what he does. But it is only a part, because during the 80s and 90s, he turned his back on live performing to raise a family and to work in environmental research at Harvard University. However the lure of country music was too strong and, with the family now grown, he ended his self-imposed exile in 1997 and formed Solomon, Maybe Today is the band's fourth release.

As a consequence of a life outside of music Maybe Today is a fully rounded and well adjusted album, the songs and ideas behind them have been matured in reality and while he isn't short of opinions, they knit perfectly with some good old fashioned country rhythms and melodies. Even if you weren't aware before, it would quickly become apparent that this not a band in the first flush of youth. There is a measured, solid confidence about the way songs like The Other Side Of The Street are played, this is an album to be savoured and enjoyed at leisure.

Maybe Today is a pleasing mix of traditional country, the gutsy and the quirky. It's Snowin is not a title you'd expect to see on an album of country blues but Solomon uses it to display a sense of humour equal to his talent. If the blues has a presentational problem, it's that it can seem a little serious, musicians like Lenny Solomon prick the bubble. Island of Misplaced Souls, Nashville Star, Rockabilly Kid, Spare Change and Players In The Band represent the traditional wing of the Lenny Solomon Band. All would sound right at home at the Grand Ol' Opry and while they are great fun, a formula is still a formula and the Lenny Solomon Band has enough about it to avoid being stylized.

The best comes with the songs that fill the cracks in the country pavement.
Lets Go To Mars is possibly one of the most original anti-war songs for many a year and it is joined by The Flood, Maybe Today and Other Side Of The Street in showing a more complex side to Lenny Solomon. As you'd expect, Lenny Solomon has strong held opinions and he uses his talent to express them subtlely but succinctly. As he stirs the conscience about the planet, Hurricane Katrina, love and loneliness he makes you care about the songs, not because you should, but because what they have to say should be listened to.

Lenny Solomon emerges from Maybe Today as a bit of an enigma. He is much
more than simply the entertaining frontman and songwriter of a honky tonk
country band but just how much more isn't clear from Maybe Today.

Date review added:  Monday, October 08, 2007
Reviewer:  Michael Mee
Reviewers Rating: