Tim Easton is often called a “veteran singer-songwriter” due to being at the strum-and-sing thing longer than most. He busked in Paris and Prague following college way back when, was heckled (as a last-minute opening act for Willie Nelson, no less) in Cleveland in the 1990s, and has been making Americana music longer than that genre has had a name. On Find Your Way, his songs are folky affairs tangled up in the blues.
His is a cool catalog to explore. His 2001 album, The Truth About Us, found him backed by most of Wilco, while Break Your Mother’s Heart in 2003 includes Heartbreaker Mike Campbell on guitar and Jim Keltner on drums. His 2006 album, Ammunition, features Lucinda Williams and Tift Merritt on harmony vocals, and his 2009 Porcupine outing lists the mercurial guitarist Kenny Vaughan among its credits. Throughout the many albums, however, his always-raspy voice and songs are the stars of the show.
Find Your Way was recorded in the Great White North with an all-Canadian backing band, nods to his mom’s cross-border roots. In essence, he’s embraced Dylan Thomas’ advice to not go gentle into that good night, though the angst of aging has led him to a meditative state. Rather than raging at the dying of light, he’s ruminating about it—and himself, for that matter. The title track, for instance, was inspired by a close call that could have landed him in the cemetery; he contemplates “another wake-up call from certain death” and “all those corners that I cut just added to my debt/all these things I have to do/are not burdens just yet.” Each new day, after all, brings with it “another chance to find your way.”
“Everything You’re Afraid Of,” with its shuffling rhythm, acoustic guitar and lyrics about eschewing “pain and rage and useless hatred,” is a slice of heartland rock that could have been written by John Mellencamp back in his 1980s’ hey day: “Send a meaningful prayer of sympathy to all your enemies/Call a friend, ask them how they’re getting on, and mean it/C’mon remove yourself from everything you’re afraid of.” The sweet “Here for You” is a love letter of a sort that finds him vowing to always be there for her—no matter how she may complain about him to her friends. “Jacqueline,” on the other hand, finds him conversing with movie star Jacqueline Bisset about her penchant for being alone: “I know you have to do your time on the road/Not even asking you why/Don’t forget to come on back home/Where the water meets the sky.” It’s another heartland ode, with “The Deep” star cast in the role of a partner or even a daughter, someone who feels the need to not stand still.
“Bangin’ Drum (Inside My Mind,” on the other hand, flips the script and unreels the demons waiting to bait him: “I made a cup of coffee and braced for a lonesome day/I made a strong cup of coffee and braced for another lonesome day/I reached around for my boots and I began to pray/Help me leave these worries, all these useless worries behind.” The dirty blues of “Arkansas Twisted Heart,” for its part, recounts a love that wasn’t destined to last—perhaps because she was born in the spring while he was born too late—while “Dishwasher’s Blues” digs into (perhaps) why that was the case: “Just because you quote Jesus/And a line or two from Five Easy Pieces/Doesn’t mean you have a right/To tell me how to live my life.”
In short, Find Your Way is a strong album that hits the right notes time and again. It’s available to stream from the usual places and can also be purchased from Bandcamp.
The Old Grey Cat 