Music Review - `Sense the World` by Walt Cronin & The Gouster (dmac)
- Details
- Category: Music Reviewer - DanMac
- Hits: 2153
Walt Cronin & The Gouster - Sense the World (click on image to watch video)
05 September 2019
With his deep singing voice, Walt Cronin often sounds like a cowboy Leonard Cohen. The album’s title cut, in fact, finds Cronin singing most Cohen-esquely about life and how to live it, over a waltz-y rhythm highlighted by acoustic guitar and piano. While “Sense The World” is philosophical, “Dancin’ Girl” is far more of a simple, observational piece of music. With it, Cronin and The Gousters describe an uncomplicated girl that loves nothing more than losing herself in the music with “a bottle of beer in her hand.” Cohen wasn’t known to serenade barroom girls, but Cronin is clearly smitten by this music lover, and unhesitant to share his thoughts.
While Cohen is the first vocal inspiration that comes to mind when listening to Cronin, “All These Things,” with its twangy country sound and female backing vocal, finds Cronin singing a whole lot like John Prine. Its lyric even mirrors Prine’s writing style when Cronin admits, “One thing that I can’t afford/Is Losing you.” It’s a sweet, honest, jaunting country tune. One song on this album, though, is a little bit like a fish out of water. “Try To Be Kind” eschews other tracks’ country/folk sounds for a moody guitar-accented piece. It sounds closer to 80s alternative rock, than anything Americana. Cronin’s voice on it is also a little higher and a tad smoother.
This album’s Prine and Cohen influences, along with its alternative sideroad, find Walt Cronin & The Gousters providing plenty of aural stimulation with which to sense the world.
Dan MacIntosh - Dan MacIntosh has been a professional music journalist for 30 years and his work has regularly appeared in many local and national publications, including Inland Empire Weekly, CCM, CMJ, Paste, Mean Street, Chord, HM, Christian Retailing, Amplifier, Inspirational Giftware, Stereo Subversion, Indie-Music, Soul–Audio, Roughstock.com, Country Standard Time and Spin.com.
To Read All of Dan's Reviews, Click Here
