Personal tradition.
White’s two previous CDs were not released here, but were, just like this third, the result of his late vocation. Previously the New Yorker mostly wrote music for commercials and played sessions for amongst others Shawn Colvin and Peter Wolf, whose Fool’s Parade and Sleepless he also produced.
Musical acquaintances from the circles of Paula Cole, Joe Henry, Norah Jones and Bob Dylan played, amongst whom drummer Shawn Pelton and Larry Campbell, here on guitars.
Keyboardist/guitarist White writes sometimes swinging rootsy songs with supple melodies, occasionally furnished with moody horns, just like colleague New Yorker Marc Cohn does. The latter is a harmony vocalist in one song here.
White’s atmospheric chord progressions incidentally make one think strongly of Cohn’s. Furthermore he shares Cohn’s themes about modern city living and loving. At first sight, White wields a laconic tone, which seems to modify his feelings. Listening carefully however reveals a personal, layered and differentiated melancholy. White is audibly better in grieve, sorrow and longing than in passing them by. Opener Until You Learn is thematic in that respect: “Until you learn to give your heart away/A song is just some pretty words/A melody you play”.
Those who have waited for Cohn’s fourth for years, thus also find solace with White, who himself proves to be a traditional singer-songwriter of more than average class too.
***1/2
Published in Heaven no.33 November-December 2004/no. 6