Steve Gilligan’s Winter Rain doesn’t believe in sorcery, at least that’s what he says on track 2, “All That You Are.” The CD Baby site notes that this album is a ” blend of contemporary acoustic based music, with hints of Celtic within an Americana framework.”
“The Dawn of Bitter Moons” is not from the repertoire of John Philip Sousa, less military and leaning towards old world, permissible in the wild west when minstrels hailing from the emerald isle serenaded the fruited plain . “Tangle” is another gentle track, a sort of Gordon Lightfoot meets Kenny Rankin with Gilligan’s enormous talents and imagination taking it into new territory.
Where colleague Mike Roy offers 14 tracks on his Eclectricity release, there are 13 on this 2014 CD from Gilligan where its predecessor, 2012’s Jacob’s Well, gave the world 15. That’s 28 songs between Jacob’s Well and its sequel and quite a bit of music to absorb and comprehend. “Lesson In Gray,” track 11 off of of the Jacob’s Well release fits nicely into “Tangle” from this disc, while “Change,” track 10, is sort of like The Band backing Dylan if Dylan had as good a voice as Gilligan. “The Thunder Rolling By” has a true authenticity with European flavors while “I Let Her Go” is pure Americana. Steve Gilligan’s catalog of live work with Kenny Selcer, groups like The Stompers and Fox Pass, his pairing with Jon Macey in a duo, is staggering, and this huge collection of new material over the two cds, Winter Rain and Jacob’s Well, show his versatility and imagination.
Steve Gilligan’s comments on CD Baby:
Winter Rain is the follow up to my debut CD, 2012’s ‘Jacob’s Well’. This collection is more acoustic based, with beautiful violin/fiddle work, cello, and heart felt vocals to convey the lyrical stories.
My music making career has spanned over 30 years, first as a member of Mercury and Boardwalk recoding artists The Stompers and then branching out with the folk trio City of Roses, the pop-rock band Fox Pass, and the Americana duo Jon Macey & Steve Gilligan. All of these artists have music available from CD Baby, iTunes, many and other music distribution outlets. Thanks for listening! Peace – Steve
Joe Viglione is the Chief Film Critic at TMRZoo.com. He has written thousands of reviews and biographies for AllMovie.com, Allmusic.com, Gatehouse Media, Al Aronowitz’s The Blacklisted Journal, and a variety of other media outlets. Joe also produces and hosts Visual Radio, a seventeen year old variety show on cable TV which has interviewed Jodie Foster, director/screenwriter David Koepp, Michael Moore, John Cena, comics/actors Margaret Cho, Gilbert Gottfried, Gallagher, musicians Mark Farner and Don Brewer of Grand Funk Railroad, Ian Hunter of Mott The Hoople, Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, Felix Cavaliere of The Rascals, political commentator Bill Press and hundreds of other personalities.
