“Single Wide Dreamer” – Aaron Raitiere (2022) [english]

The center of all American music, not just country music, has always been Nashville. It’s true today that center has lost its power over everything and everyone, now it is not only the majors to dictate and they too have to deal with musicians and independent record companies. But it is there that over the years the best songwriters and musicians wander around recording studios and local, hoping for an opportunity to work with the best. Aaron Raitiere was one of these songwriters, one who from his native Kentucky (which is not strange when it comes to quality songwriters) arrived in the City of Music and lent his art to many artists. Remember the award-winning soundtrack to the movie A Star Is Born? Well, he co-wrote it. The list of artists with whom he has collaborated is really long: Ashley McBride, Midland and to give another example, soon will be released the new album of Whiskey Myers (Tornillo July 29, ed) and there will also be his name among the credits. The debut record in his name has had a long gestation, without haste, without heartbreak, almost for fun. It all started 4 years ago when Raitiere wrote some songs and submitted them to Miranda Lambert and Anderson East (who are the producers of the finished work). Slowly, slowly the game flooded and took shape and the list of guests who wanted to participate became an all star game of Nashville : Dave Cobb, Ashley Monroe, Bob Weir just to mention the first that come to mind. Single Wide Dreamer, I’m telling you right now, it’s a little gem. A sparkling debut for a unique artist, 12 pieces ranging from country to folk to blues and soul, without flaws, without drops of tension. The author has a unique ability to write ironic songs and has a very innate talent to find the positive in every facet of life, a simple life out of the spotlight that Aaron celebrates in every word. I think any American singer-songwriter would give anything to have the ability to write a track like the title track that opens the record, a song that resembles the best things written by Kris Kristofferson, an ironic song, light, but that makes you think. A piece where the character is one who dreams of something else in life, could make the professor or the great philosopher while he pays homage to Merle (Haggard, ed.) and fights for weapons and peace, you can’t help but sing along with Raitiere. A song written when the author was living in a caravan after his house had burned down, taking it with philosophy was the minimum to not go crazy. After a song like this, kidnapped the listener, Aaron does not stop anymore and gives us stories that always have the protagonists of women, loves and the bad things of life to take always with a positive attitude. A record that we needed, that has to be said. For the Birds is another track that drags, a bit ‘country, slightly honky tonk, but imbued with that irreverent irony that is the real plus of his lyrics. How do you not move and stop humming this piece written with Lambert? The influences feel clear and the great John Prine would be proud of a song like this, and that’s a great compliment. A trumpet accompanies the beginning of Cold Soup, a song that has in itself a melancholy background, after all there is talk of a homeless person eating cold food, but Raitiere’s ability is to find something positive and to smile for in every situation of life, even the hardest, despite it seems impossible. At Least We Didn’t Have Kids starts out as a sunny folk country song, but as for the others it’s lyrics its secret. There is talk of a love ended too early, the protagonist but here too he sees something positive and it’s all in the title: at least we didn’t have kids, and a tattoo with his name on it can turn into one that celebrates Kentucky, and you go back to life without thinking about the bad things you’ve been through. So, it’s cathartic to listen to the pieces of this record. The memories, even the most unpleasant, are exorcised recalling pleasantly a love gone bad when he was 18 years old, Your Daddy Hates Me, a song with almost soul appeal with the wonderful narrating voice of Raitiere that accompanies us in his memories: another jewel to add to the list. The soul flavor also appears in the beautiful Can’t Rain All the Time, the feeling of being in Muscle Shoals is really strong, mixed with a very country John Prine, and we can imagine that Raitiere also brought this soul flavor in the song written with Cody Cannon of Whiskey Myers for their new album, but this is another story that I will tell you soon. Talking to us about something tragic, like not having a roof over your head and finding a way to smile and look ahead, is an amazing skill and Aaron Raitiere mastered it. The beautiful record closes with another sunny piece, a country that looks positively at the passage of time, Time Will Fly tells us how time flies fast in the rearview mirror, but the secret to living happily and with a smile is how we choose to look at life before us. A really fantastic debut, an album full of talent, irony and positivity, 12 pieces that open a slice of warm sun in the gray clouds of negative life situations. Aaron Raitiere confirms himself as an author with a superb talent, a record that deserves to be on the charts of the most beautiful of this 2022 and that puts an irresistible desire to sing, move and listen to these songs over and over again, without ever getting tired. Thanks Aaron, Single Wide Dreamer is a record that, as I said before, it took a while and you will hardly take it off your speakers if you love quality American music and if you love music that puts a smile and the desire to lower the windows and sing loudly towards the horizon, with the wind that caresses your face.

Good listening,

Trex Willer by http://www.ticinonotizie.it

(you can find original italian article at this link : https://www.ticinonotizie.it/aaron-raitiere-single-wide-dreamer-2022-by-trex-roads/ )

Pubblicato da Trex

Sono un blogger e scrittore appassionato di musica indipendente americana. Scrivo gialli polizieschi e ho inventato il personaggio del detective texano Cody Myers.

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