All That You Can Dream

ナッシュヴィルの実力派SSWがYEP ROCより放つニューアルバム!!

テネシー・ナッシュヴィルを拠点とするシンガーソングライター / マルチ・インストゥルメンタリストGRANT-LEE PHILLIPSのニューアルバムがYEP ROCよりCD / LPリリース。パンデミックの最中、毎週『LIVE FROM THE PARLOR』と銘打ったライヴ・ストリームと並行し、レコーディングを開始。フィリップスの繊細かつ力強いヴォーカル、豊かなアコースティック・グルーヴ二満ちた楽曲群に魅了されること間違いなしです。

It was a very common story in 2021 and 2022 -- a musician was planning to hit the road in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic put paid to their touring plans, and stuck at home, they decided their home studio might be good for more than just cutting demos. Grant-Lee Phillips was gearing up to tour in support of 2020s Lightning, Show Us Your Stuff when the world suddenly shut its doors, and as he observed a rich variety of chaos while homebound, he started writing songs about it all. 2022s All That You Can Dream doesnt sound like a homemade album -- many of Phillips usual collaborators (including Jamie Edwards on keyboards, Eric Heywood on pedal steel, Jennifer Condos on bass, and Jay Bellerose on drums) were happy to fly in their parts, and the traditionally personal feel and the smokey caress of Phillips voice are very much present in these intimate performances. However, a more careful listen to the songs shows how much All That You Can Dream is a product of its time and place. As Phillips watched many daily lives get shifted into neutral, armed thugs storm the U.S. Capitol building, immigrants get treated like animals, and many of the cornerstones of American society and culture threatening to vanish in an instant, he was writing songs. All That You Can Dream is not so much angry as gently appalled, the voice of a thoughtful man saddened and puzzled by the upending of all that seems reasonable in his world. Phillips isnt Billy Bragg, and he delivers his messages with the graceful impressionistic croon that has been the hallmark of his work since Grant Lee Buffalo broke through in the 1990s. Phillips commentary on the state of the world is quite artful, but a look at the lyrics and a careful listen to the vocals allows the activist side of the songs to step forward, and when they take shape its effective in the way it whispers rather than shouts in our ear. As a vocalist and songwriter, Grant-Lee Phillips has lost none of the ability and magic thats made him worth hearing for the past 30 years, and whether you want to hear its messages as forefront or subtext, All That You Can Dream reminds us of the reasons hes still worth hearing in the 21st century. ~ Mark Deming