FMQB Review

On Steve Reynolds' 429 Records debut, Exile, the Canadian singer/songwriter - who now resides in California - relies almost entirely on his acoustic guitar and his own rugged voice.   Sometimes the compositions include soft percussion, or a hint of piano, mandolin or accordion accompaniment, but it's Reynolds' voice and his effortless guitar-picking that really drive his craft.   At his smoothest, his emotive vocals recall David Gray, but he's more often gruff and raspy like The Wallflowers' Jakob Dylan.   His lyrics tend to be abstract and poetic, but listeners can ascertain that he is sometimes singing of weighty subjects like death, redemption, and lost love, and other times musing about wanderlust and the road of life.

Reynolds grew up in Vancouver where he spent a lot of time playing guitar, but admittedly spent just as much time getting into trouble.   He took some guitar lessons but never expected to become a professional musician.   Instead, he worked doing construction, carpentry and other odd jobs before finally deciding to take a trip to Scotland on a whim.

"I'd sort of bottomed out in my life [in Canada]," Reynolds explained in a Los Angeles Times interview.   "One day I saw an ad for a $200 flight to Scotland so I went in to my boss' office and said, 'I'm going to Scotland.'   She looked at me and said, 'Yeah, you probably need it.'   I took my guitar and bummed around Scotland and Ireland.   I ended up meting this person and she was a friend of a friend from L.A.   We were talking one day and I said, 'I have a cousin in L.A.   Maybe I'll come down.'   Instead, I went back home to go back to work but realized I couldn't do it.   So, I packed up my van and drove down here.   I lived in my van for nine months, played around in some clubs."

In that time playing L.A. clubs, Reynolds built up a loyal fan base with his unpredictable live shows.   Sometimes he'd play as a solo acoustic artist, sometimes with friends as a rockin' quartet or even a quintet with a keyboardist.   As Reynolds explained in the interview,   "I'm consistently inconsistent.   I like to invite the messiness of life onstage."

With Exile, Reynolds' "messiness" is much more controlled.   His harmonies are captivating, the songs are undeniably catchy and the musicianship is airtight.   At press time, the first single, "Dear Rose," had not yet gone for adds, but it's the type of tune that sticks in one's head after only a few listens.   The song's upbeat tone belies its heavy lyrical content about a father mourning the loss of his daughter and the sometimes violent world in which kids are raised.

"I do hope that I'm creating something where I'm telling a story that might start out in the gutter but have a light at the end of it," said Reynolds.   "That's not a conscious thing where I feel like I always have to put home in there, but I don't want to live in bleakness.   I find that a lot of stuff is just so dark that I'm not lifted out of anything.   And music doesn't have to do that, but for me, it's important to feel there's a forward motion."