Josh Farrow – Trouble Walks With Me

Holy mackerel! I search hard for music like this and I all too seldom find it and yet there it was in my mailbox. Josh Farrow. Trouble Walks With Me. Nice cover, I thought, but the purple-hazed look in this guy’s eyes had me wondering. Maybe too hip. Maybe not. Christ, I need a vacation. Who makes judgments like that? I’m turning into Dave Marsh, for chrissakes!

Surprise, surprise! The one-sheet (that sheet of paper which gives you the lowdown on the artist) was actually one sheet! Lately the PR firms have expanded their thinking making them two, three, or more sheets of promotional detritus. Truth be told I seldom read them anymore, fearful of the information bringing on real prejudice (think, “who are they trying to kid?” or “I could write sixteen paragraphs on what happened to this artist from Poughkeepsie” while paying no attention to the music). It is a tough world out there when it comes to promotion and it is not a job I would want. So when I slipped the disc into the player, I set myself in neutral mode and hoped for the best.   

And I got it. Josh Farrow reaches back to the early days of the singer/songwriter, or at least the days they started recognizing them as such. I hear songs as songs written for a moment in time and presented with no pretension to anything else. One rocks, one rides a groove, one reaches to the depths. One after another, the songs of Trouble Walks With Me make their statements, much as did Elton John and James Taylor and Long John Baldry and so many others who became known for their abilities shaping music to the culture or even shaping a bit of culture itself. You won’t find anything heavy here unless you deem the structure of a really really good song heavy. You won’t be digging deep into any genres either, though there are influences. Chances are, you won’t even notice anything but the music and how easily it washes over you. This guy is good. This guy knows how to write. And his voice is as pleasant as they come. Here is a live version of “Before You Leave,” one track from the album. Imagine it with a soft, smooth country-ish background and a female background vocal smooth as a baby’s skin and you’re close to the studio version. The lady’s name is Melissa Mathes, by the way, and the song is a heartbreaker.  

Farrow is hardly all ballads and smooth rock. He strikes a groove on some songs and rocks a bit on a couple of others. Whatever he does, though, he does well enough that he might well be one of those artists headlining festivals he has only been visiting up to now. In case you haven’t noticed, I seldom write about artists who have a real following. I have a feeling that this may be my only chance to write about Farrow.

And this is a track on the album which evidently was also on an earlier EP, though it may be a different version.

Be kind. Buy this album. I don’t think Farrow would last five minutes slinging hash or carrying hod. But when he picks up a guitar and starts to sing…..