Randy Forte releases Chas Randall

Randy Forte releases Chas Randall

SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/randyforte/sets/chas-randall

The latest release from Arizona based singer/songwriter Randy Forte is an eleven song studio recording entitled Chas Randall. There’s a lot of blues influence in the songs, but the first number “Six Beers Away (From Crying Over You)” recalls the sort of country music you don’t hear from Nashville much anymore. The song’s defining musical parts, pedal steel guitar and piano, swim and sparkle like quicksilver over lean drumming that never wastes a beat. Forte doesn’t have a conventionally attractive singing voice, but he doesn’t need to. Instead, he shows himself more than capable of bringing the necessary energy and emotion to the song and it is more than enough to make this a rousing success for Chas Randall.

“Living in Yesterdays Tomorrow” is an enjoyable guitar workout, but tastefulness is an overall musical watchword for this release. It’s a dangerous game to start interpreting an artist’s intentions because you may lose any connection to the entertainment value of a given track, but there’s definitely a suggestion of the personal powering this song and others. You can hear the high stakes in every line of its lyric and it reaches memorable crescendos with each chorus. One of the lighter numbers on the album, “You Can’t Keep Hiding”, clearly aims to recall classic pop rock fare from the 1960’s, with more than a hint of the blues peeking through every bar, and Forte’s casual, loose-limed performance will cast a spell even over the most cynical listeners.

“Rollin’” is another cut looking to entertain more than make any substantive lyrical statement – and there’s not a damn thing wrong with that. Forte’s a fantastic musical entertainer whose convincing ability to inhabit any lyric is one of the chief traits that sets him apart. This is a tune that glides past listeners and leaves you with a smile. Forte’s next gem comes with the song “Best Friends”. This is one of the album’s more restrained numbers and you can hear the foundation of the song in the acoustic guitar playing underlying the entirety of the song. Forte doesn’t stop there, however, and instead of keeping things one dimensional, expands the song’s possibilities with additional guitar work laid over top and understated aural touches hanging in the background.

“Love Out of Luck” has some of the same country amble we heard with the album’s first song and has the same easy-going authenticity we heard with that song without sounding imitative. The album’s last song mentioning love, “My Love Away”, revisits Forte’s rock sound and has one of the best lyrics he’s yet penned on this release or earlier recordings. The slow unwinding of the track “Picnic on the River Kind of Days” brings country and blues strands together with lovely imagery strewn throughout the lyric. It’s a relatively brief tune, but feels much more expansive and satisfies more than its length might indicate. The finale “Cross the Mississippi” ends Chas Randall on an emphatic note with Forte flexing some more of his rock muscle while, still, combining it with bluesy sounds well in keeping with the preceding tunes. Randy Forte has built an impressive discography over the last few years and each new album shows advancement over the last – Chas Randall, however, is the best yet in my estimation.

 Mindy McCall