There’s a familiar comfortable feeling that comes over you when you listen to the music of Charlie Mosbrook. The guy has a rich, worldly voice that sounds like it was broken in slowly, like a well-loved instrument. Take a little Kris Kristofferson, a bit of Jim Croce, and perhaps a smidgen of Gordon Lightfoot, and you’ll start to get an idea of his sound. On his latest release, “Something To Believe,” Mosbrook delivers a dozen songs, almost all of which are beautifully rich in their simplicity. The folky sound that makes up the album owes just as much to Mosbrook’s guitar and bass playing as it does his easygoing vocals. The singer-songwriter also gets assistance from nearly a dozen other artists, including Avin Loki Baird, Shely Lynn Sangdahl, Greg Alan Reece, and Steev Inglish.
The album opens with it’s title track, which features Mosbrook singing over Reece’s banjo picking and Inglish’s harmonica. The song has the sort of old-time groove that would delight T Bone Burnett were he searching for more music for his latest film project. “A World Not Seen” finds Mosbrook channeling a bit of Neil Diamond (not the cheesy “Love on the Rocks” Neil, but rather the guy who masterfully wrote “Solitary Man”). “Creepy” makes good use of Bill Lestock’s mandolin and Cindy Langmack’s backing vocals on a tune that tells the story of love unrequited. The album’s catchiest song, “Listen To A Woman,” features Mosbrook singing the praises of the fairer sex, while backed by Leestock, Langmack, and Sangdahl.
The quality of the music is even more amazing when one considers the fact that Mosbrook is an incomplete quadrapaligic. He even sings about the fact on “Crooked Stick.” The condition doesn’t seem to have slowed the musician down; quite the opposite in fact. Still, while some musicians feel the need to all but beat the listener over the head with their talent, Mosbrook chooses a different approach, inviting anyone who cares to pause and take in a song or two. Chances are that even listeners who don’t necessarily gravitate toward folk music will find something to like here.
