Mother Country: Dave Crossland Shines a Light on John Stewart

 Before the singer-songwriter movement took shape in the early ’70s, before James Taylor made his way through “Fire and Rain” on his breakout Sweet Baby James album; before Carole King wove her Tapestry album into a bestselling classic, there was California Bloodlines. In 1969, former Kingston Trio member John Stewart and Beach Boys producer Nick Venet walked into the same Nashville studio-where Bob Dylan was making himself over into a country and western singer. They brought with them a bouquet of freshly written songs that chronicled the American experience. They had the balls to use the same musicians Dylan employed for his Nashville Skyline sessions.  They went on to record one of the earliest landmark albums of today’s Americana music movement, California Bloodlines. While it never eclipsed the albums it would later influence, the burst of energy provided Stewart with a career and artistic trajectory that would guide him through 40 years of creative inspiration and innovation.  Arguably,  with California Bloodlines, the singer-songwriter movement took its first breath of life.  The album, and his work that followed, places him in the grand hall of the best American songwriters of the last 50 years. Stewart, who died in 2008, belongs in the company of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and Neil Young. That he hasn’t recieved  such wide acknowledgement is one of the main reasons for the existence of Dave Crossland’s latest release,  Mother Country(Folk Era).

The true test of any great work of popular music is how it transitions through genres, styles and the visionary lens of younger artists. If so then Dave Crossland’s seminal new release, Mother Country, provides ample evidence that John Stewart’s legacy is as timeless as it is pliable. Crossland, who was introduced to Stewart’s music through his family and their surrounding music culture in Ohio, has brought a new relevance to ten of John Stewart’s classic songs spanning his 40 year solo career.

What makes this album work so well is the fresh, original and appealing take on many of Stewart’s best known songs. These are not safely created covers or imitations. They are well-crafted productions with a contemporary feel that mines the textural elegance within the songs. The soul of the lyrics is recaptured, like so many fireflies, with new phrasing and vocal arrangements.  But most of all, a new potential for each song is realized with an engaging and dynamic production . 

The title track, “Mother Country” opens the album with a modern spoken word narrative that illuminates the immediacy of lyrics over what could have been an exercise in artistic nostalgia. Stewart’s original drives along like an epic narrative that could be found in a John Ford Western,  However, Crossland’s version comes in with a darker hue, that respects the original narrative while building his own vision of the song more akin to Sam Peckinpah in movie narrative terms.  

In a similar fashion, there’s a bit of Americana psychedelia involved with the classic, “Pirates of Stone County Road,” where Crossland sings to the ethereal nature of memory over Stewart’s emphasis on romantic, childhood nostalgia. Both approaches to the story of the song work well. Crosland could have taken the safe road here, but instead pushes the song a bit further down a new narrative path.  It’s to his credit that he has brought alternative qualities to a song that is well loved and so familiar to Stewart’s loyal fans and friends.  

There is more texture, drive, energy and soul on Crossland’s interpretation of Stewart’s Top 40,  70’s hit, “Gold,” can be heard on the original hit where Stevie Nick’s vocal dominates.  The arrangement and production is layered with some fine interplay between instruments. It enhances the song over Lindsey Buckingham’s one-dimensional approach on the original. While Stewart sang with his tongue-in-cheek,  Crossland here gives the lyrics more weight and conviction. The result creates a current narrative that moves the song into new songic territory. “Gold” which many consider a throwaway and Stewart himself distanced himself from in later years, is rediscovered and brought to a new full dimension on this album. Thanks to Crossland, the song is better than most have assumed over the years.

 The percussive minimalist foundation on “July You’re A Woman,” allows the song’s lyrics to play in a way that enhances the vocal possibilities of tune. “Daydream Believer,” is reflective and effectively slowed down in a way that allows us to reconsider lyrics that have long become over familiar.

The only original song on the album, the bluesy, “You Ride The Wild Horses,” pays homage to an artist who, for Crossland,  went from legend to mentor to friend. It’s the ultimate tribute to John Stewart; to write a song that highlights lyrical imagery and the poetic universality of his legacy derived from his own songs.

It’s no easy task to take songs regarded as nearly sacred by so many of Stewart’s fans into new ground. On Mother Country Dave Crossland has done so with a sense of respect and love, but also with a deep desire to remind the world today of the timeless relevance of  John Stewart, one of America’s finest singer-songwriters.

A CD release party will be held for Dave Crossland’s Mother Country on Sunday, November 16th at The Mint in Los Angeles at 6:30 pm.