‘Are You Open?’ Invites Us In, But It’s Hard to Stay

Blues Traveler was blasting at the gym the other day — just plain blasting. Even over the Jason Isbell in my headphones I could hear an aimless harmonica circling endlessly. For a second I could identify the song (hey — I did own a few Blues Traveler CDs in the ’90s) but it slipped my mind just as quickly.

This is probably an unfair way to open a review of the new album from Seth Walker, who has more in common sonically with Jack Johnson or G. Love than John Popper, but it did get the wheels turning. While there’s nowhere near as much noodling on his Are You Open? as on a Blues Traveler record, both inhabit a similar jam/roots/blues sphere. And for all the musicianship, for the sense of melody and groove, these songs simply aren’t memorable.

Take “All I Need to Know” and “No More Will I” for example. Both are reggae numbers: the former riding a rocksteady vibe, the latter more refined and pensive. Yet reggae is a tricky style to dabble in. Where The Police and Joe Strummer succeeded was in bridging reggae with pop, with New Wave, with political punk, with Americana — you get the idea — on Are You Open? the form just isn’t elevated.

“I won’t cry / when it’s raining on the inside,” Walker sings on “Inside,” which rolls along like a Ben Harper cover of “Fly Like an Eagle.” This is one of the more successful numbers on Walker’s latest, in that “Inside” exists at the junction of feel-good groove and emotional honesty. On this cut, Walker is vulnerable, but optimistic. “Inside” is solid.

“Magnolia” and title track “Are You Open?” are gentle and small, while “Underdog” is driven by bluesy acoustic slide guitar. The polyrhythmic “Hard Road” nods to Graceland‘s nods to afro-pop (that was a mouthful … ). None of this is bad, per se, but it’s not altogether memorable either.