Album Review – Tyler-James Kelly’s “Dream River”

#510 (Traditional country) on the Country DDS.

With a hearthy and woody baritone voice that envelops you like the sense of home—and songs that cradle and compliment that voice with compelling words—Tyler-James Kelly forwards a debut album full of moments of reflection and tribulation, balanced by sincere expressions of gratitude. It’s like a walk beside a river, a home cooked meal enjoyed beside the warmth of a wood stove, or the greeting of a beloved dog after many days away.

Rhode Island might seem like an unlikely origination point for a country record, but it’s the universal sense of place and home that inspired this work. After purchasing a quaint house out in the country where Kelly could see the same river he grew up swimming in, it all came full circle, and this journeyman blues rocker found himself returning to the old school country music and singer/songwriter material he grew up with.

Playing guitar since the age of 10, the parents of Tyler-James Kelly used to razz his old soul nature by saying he walked into a corn maze in 1975 and never came out, even though he wasn’t even born until 1988. Kelly spent many hours at his Nanna’s house listening to old 45s as opposed to carousing with kids his own age burning mix CDs. This classic disposition comes out in the ten original songs of Dream River.

The omnivorous nature of the album is one of its distinct assets. “Travelin’ Troubadour” is a twangy, country, steel guitar-driven honky tonk tune. “Mud Money” is more acoustic folk. “Dream River” is a dreamy waltz. Each song finds a home for itself in a style and era that fits it best as opposed to conforming to a predetermined sound.

Tyler-James Kelly presents the full range of experience in small town life in America, and the one people experience both north and south of the Mason-Dixon Line, not just the idyllic one you often hear referenced in many mainstream country songs. “It’s frowned upon to be alive in a dead end town. If you don’t do as they do, they try to tear you down,” Kelly sings at one point, and the song “Big Dreams” about how small towns can constrict your aspirations is one of the crowning tracks of the album.

The simplicity of the songs is one of their virtues, but some of the songs of Dream River struggle to make a strong impression, like they needed an additional verse, a twist to the melody, or an additional instrumental accompaniment to find their full potential. But when Kelly sings “I’m gettin’ by, one disaster at a time” in the incredibly soulful “Gettin’ By,” you feel it deep down in your bones. This is the universal human experience.

Rivers and highways call to the dreamers among us because they’re conduits to take us away from the constricting moments of the present, and offer endless possibilities in what could lie in the future. They’re also the path home for the weary and broken-hearted who pursued their dreams in the big world, but found a sense of place and home was just as important, if not more. Tyler-James Kelly encapsulates these heavy sentiments in the passages of Dream River.

7.8/10

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