2025 reviews of the CD "IT MATTERS featuring Tom Paxton"
Rambles.NET - 12 April 2025
C. Daniel Boling
It Matters featuring Tom Paxton
(Berkalin, 2025)
In the history of modern folk song, Tom Paxton – famous to those aware of what he's done with his life in uncountable recordings and on concert stages – looms large. Modern folk songs can be defined as songs that owe a debt to their traditional counterparts (straightforward lyrics, acoustic stringed instruments, uncomplicated melodies) but address the world in which we live now, and the composers are
seldom anonymous. In other words, while respecting it, they don't attempt to replicate the old stuff. When he arrived on the Greenwich Village scene in December 1960, Paxton brought a fresh sensibility to the art of folk-based songwriting.
Amazingly, Paxton is still around, if no longer touring, and composing the same kinds of songs he started fashioning 65 years ago. They're as good as they ever were. Perhaps even more amazingly, he seems to have managed to reincarnate before death; how else to explain New Mexico's C. Daniel Boling? Boling resembles Paxton both in voice and in ideation. When together they release an album like It Matters, with each of the 16 songs credited to both, the result, depending on how old you are, turns out to be either an outstanding Paxton record or an awe-inspiring Boling one.
Actually, it can be confusing. You can consult the liner notes and find out who's singing lead at the moment, of course, but if you don't have them at hand, you'll have to figure out whose voice has more miles on it. Not easy in all instances, surprisingly. In any event, the overall quality of everything is gratifying. I know Paxton's catalogue because I've been listening to him since the mid-1960s. I've been listening to Boling since 2025. While I am versed in Paxton's outlook on the world, I can only speculate if the younger Boling got his from
exposure to his partner's songs or if he came into the world with his own kindred vision. It doesn't matter (if you will pardon the expression). All we need to know is that theirs is a duo made in modern-folk heaven.
I have never met Paxton, though we share mutual friends. As a singer-songwriter Paxton never comes across as saccharine, but he always seems kind. He has a personal reputation to match. In his life as a musician, he sings of un-famous ordinary human beings as seen by an empathetic observer. Beyond that, he is noted for political-tinged material. On the current album we hear several numbers in that vein, leavened with characteristic dark humor.
There is also a sweet, funny song ("Sgt. Reckless") about an apparently real-life horse who served honorably in the Korean War and retired with the medals to prove it. Anybody who lives, breathes and interacts with our corporate overlords will have lived through the situation related in "We’re Not Happy." I'm certain, though, that this will be the first time you've laughed about it. And if you're looking for a movingly spiritual anti-gospel song, you'll find it in "God's Too Big." Who would have thought you could raise profound theological
questions in a simple tune just over two minutes long?
It Matters improbably transcends most singer-songwriter formulas. The bond that links Boling and Paxton will touch, at moments astound, listeners who understand what is happening here. Those who don't, though, will embrace the rare wit and wisdom floating into their ears and hearts. A small miracle, it feels like, and one definitely good for all of us.
Music review by Jerome Clark
https://rambles.net/boling_itmatters25.html
[FULL DISCLOSURE: Above we've corrected the spelling of “Berkalin”, and the title of the song “We're Not Happy” referenced in the second-to-last paragraph (the reviewer called it “Go Away” which is also a good title, but not the one we gave the song.) Many thanks to Jerome Clark and Rambles for this wonderful review!]
The Rocking Magpie
Americana, Blues, Folk, Alt Country, Country and a Whole Lot More!
C Daniel Boling ft Tom Paxton
It Matters
Self Release
One of This Year’s Most Important Folk Music Releases.
Baring in mind how old I am and how even older C Daniel Boling is, our paths never crossed until he released his last collaboration with the legendary Tom Paxton in 2023.
Apparently when Tom heard the final mixes for their first album together, New Old Friends, he wrote Daniel, “Wonderful album, son. Let’s do another!”
And a year and a half later, here it is!
Thankfully for me, this album arrived just as Spring sprung around me, with the sun finally shining and an abundance of flora appearing in my garden; and this charm filled album has been the perfect soundtrack to my lazy hazy days.
While all of the songs are co-writes, Tom Paxton only features on a handful of songs, but when he does my own heart sings; starting with opening track Hidey-Ho a charming tale about ‘people of a certain age’ being grateful for actually ‘waking up’! All I can say is that it means something to me!
The title track It Matters follows in a similar if not darker fashion; and the first time I played it happened to be when a dark cloud was hovering over me; and when the words sunk in that cloud quickly shifted away, leaving me pondering and smiling at the duos words.
“It’s why a teacher teaches – It’s why a writer writes
Why a demonstrator goes to jail for other people’s rights
Why a daddy leaves for work most days before it’s even light
Why a mama stitches school clothes in the middle of the night
“It matters to your spirit – It matters to your soul
It matters that we do our best to keep each other whole
Things we set in motion never stay in our control
It matters that you do the things you do
It matters that you keep on being you
It matters”
As you’d expect from two finely honed wordsmiths who have looked at the world around us for stories that we need to hear for decades; Boling and Paxton come up trumps every time here … not least on two songs about military conflicts; Sgt. Reckless about a horse in the Korean War that became an essential member of the group; and the razor sharp Send The Old Men To Fight which hits several nails squarely on the head!!
For two old Folkies, Boling and Paxton are two old romantics at heart; but their idea of a romantic song is generally a lot deeper and darker than what the ‘kids’ give us these days; with Tom Paxton singing Something Missing In Your Smile and Daniel taking lead on Whistlin’ Our Song which immediatly follows, pulling your heartstrings in two different directions.
Sometimes a Folk Song doesn’t have to be ‘edgy’;’ to be memorable; as Red Barn is just plain ‘lovely’ and will make toy (sic) smile as you tap your toes in time.
I receive a lot of albums every month from singer-songwriters; some better than others … but it’s taken to septuagenarians to capture the current zeitgeist and put it into song … try listening to Complain, We’re Not Happy and She’s a Witch without clenching your fists you’re a better person than I.
By the very nature of the medium Folk Songs won’t appeal to everyone; but sometimes as a music fan you have to throw caution to the wind and take a chance on something new; and in this case ‘timeless’ with the final two songs; C Daniel’s Wanderin’ Again and Tom bringing it all home with Goodnight; which are destined to bring a tear to your eyes and possibly even play your heartstrings like a harp.
There’s no such thing as a ‘best song’ … just a personal Favourite; here I have three, all coincidentally sung by Tom with C Daniel providing backup, but that really doesn’t matter as in each case it’s the song/story that has captured my attention …. I Know Stuff is possibly the jauntiest tune here and harks back in some ways to Paxton’s early albums as he ponders on today’s throwaway society …
“I know stuff and I fix things
TV screens to piston rings
Got a basement stuffed with junk
Good for more than you’d a thunk”
and
“If I can’t fix it, I don’t need it
Folks’d be surprised, I’d bet
Match it – Mix it – Guaranteed it
Nothing’s ever stumped me yet”
Especially in today’s USA, God Is Too Big is a brave song to release; but at their ages I guess Boling and Paxton wrote it, sung it and have released it because it’s a subject that simply needs to be discussed …. as they say in the accompanying notes …
The old saying goes something like, “Follow those who seek the truth…and run from those who think they’ve found it.”
If I have all the answers, I have all the questions wrong
The other; What Could Possibly Go Wrong? is a similar view on modern society, especially the way scientists and engineers are rushing headlong into creating a world ruled by AI, computers and robots!
“If we let machines do our thinkin’ for us
Next, they’ll do our drinkin’ for us
They’ll start writing their own songs
They’ll open up that damn thesaurus
Write ev’ry word of the stinkin’ chorus
What could possibly go wrong?
What could possibly go wrong?
And closing with ….
“I’m all for progress, that’s for sure
But what I think I mean
You bet it’s Artificial
Intelligence remains to be seen!”
Back in the lat 60’s and 70’s this album would be an important release on Elektra, Warner Brothers, CBS or Reprise; but in 2025 it has to be self-released and passed on by word of mouth via indie sites like this … but that doesn’t stop IT MATTERS being one of this year’s most important releases.
Reviewed by Alan Magpie
https://rockingmagpie.wordpress.com/2025/04/18/c-daniel-boling-featuring-tom-paxton-it-matters/
Fervor Coulee - roots music opinion
C. Daniel Boling
It Matters featuring Tom Paxton
DanielBoling.com
Berkalin Records
Tom Paxton previous recorded with Daniel Boling on 2023’s New Old Friends, an album I have yet to encounter, but I was introduced to Boling last year with his affable set Love, Dan. Paxton, as I recall, most recently came to my attention via an impressive album with John McCutcheon two years ago.
Welcome then is this Boling release of sixteen songs co-written by the pair with nearly half the tracks featuring Paxton’s voice in harmony with Boling; another two have Paxton leading the way.
This is unrepentant, unvarnished folk music. Beautiful stuff that simply sounds like friends making music together, nothing too heavy, but with wisdom widely woven throughout.
The title track doesn’t feature Paxton for some reason, but is straight out of his oeuvre: presented in a forthright manner, the songwriters encourage us to remember the lives we unknowingly brighten. Lovely thoughts for dark days, of which there have been too many recently.
Considering the age of the pair, it isn’t surprising that select songs wryly question the sanity of these times. Shaking fists at clouds is “What Could Possibly Go Wrong?”:
“If we let machines do our thinking for us,
Next they’ll do our drinking for us
They’ll start writing their own songs.
They’ll open up that damn thesaurus,
Write every word of the stinkin’ chorus.
What could possibly go wrong?”
Songwriting is just the start of their concerns within this appealing number. “Complain,” “We’re Not Happy,” and “Hidey-Ho” are light-hearted, as is “I Know Stuff,” which doesn’t make them any less true. The album’s wisest words may be found within “God Is Too Big”: “If I have all the answers, I have all the questions wrong.”
McCutcheon’s ability to elevate the ‘mundane to legend’ comes to mind several times during the album’s three-quarters of an hour, most acutely on “Sgt. Reckless.” About “a mighty good Marine,” it is one of those songs that takes a sliver of under-known history to create a song of significant tribute. “She’s a Witch” reveals the “price of our safety” while recognizing, “We don’t care if he’s lying, if he is lying for us—” another song all too relevant.
Heartfelt is the impressive “Send the Old Men to Fight.” Perhaps the sentiment has previously been shared elsewhere, but the song has logic behind it:
“Send us old men to fight if there has to be war,
don’t send the pride of our youth anymore.
We couldn’t save the world—
these kids just might,
if we give them a chance.
Send us old men to fight.”
Paxton ably takes the lead on “Something Missing in Your Smile” and “Goodnight,” two songs of intimate and personal introspection.
Instrumentally, the album is nicely sparse with an acoustic guitar (played by Boling) focus, but one realizes there are touches of mandolin and banjo (Kelly Mulhollan) throughout with additional appearances of bass, fiddle, snare, reso, extra guitar and more. I especially like the guitar playing on “Wand’rin’ Again.”
As much as we enjoy and appreciate the wisdom of youthful artists many years our junior, we old guys of all ages still have something to say—just ask us. C. Daniel Boling and Tom Paxton bring us a little closer to the angels with the very enjoyable It Matters.
by Donald Teplyske
2024 reviews of "Love, Dan" CD
FERVOR COULEE music blog:
C. Daniel Boling Love, Dan DanielBoling.com Berkalin Records
C. Daniel Boling has lived a life most troubadours would envy.
Well-traveled in his youth as a child of the US military, he became a National Park Ranger bringing more experiences before the US Bureau of Land Management required a Criminal Investigator. Somewhere along his journey, Boling started singing and writing songs, winning festival contests, including Kerrville New Folk, was befriended by Tom Paxton, and joined the current edition of early folk trendsetters, The Limeliters.
Love, Dan is Boling’s tenth recording, and is a rarity—an original, true folk album released in 2024. While guest musicians, singers, and hummers are present, this recording sounds and feels like an intimate, solo project.
Boling shares his memories and regrets in a personable manner, his strong tenor voice clearly communicating secrets, insights, and observations. As we age, it is most likely natural to reflect upon personal shortcomings, the way we betrayed or hurt those in our acquaintance, including family.
Boling captures this hard-earned maturity in nostalgic songs including “If I Were You,” “The Leash,” and “Love, Dan.”
“Whadya Do Today?” is possibly the most successful of the many songs which feel deeply personal; it is quite lovely, and is a fine reminder to cherish those you can while you may.
In the spirit of Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie, Boling turns his lens inward to comment on contemporary society. “Ever Since I Woke” is a call for individual action: we can change and grow out of immature, harmful habits and actions. The impacts we’ve had on our world—environmental, human and political—are captured within the heroic horror of “Toward the Fire” with “For Better and Worse” and “I Don’t Know How” echoing messages of folk classics as intensely as was done sixty years ago:
“Injustice in our name, hate we disavow;
we will find our way, I don’t know how.”
“All of Us are Immigrants” resonates a little more acutely given the current political climate. Lighter, “Public Domain” hits the songwriting mark, while “Quarter” features clever and even charming wordplay. The sepia-toned, beautifully vibrant “The Sycamore Tree” is so terrifically written and performed, one can be forgiven for believing you heard it years prior.
Boling strums and picks all the guitar parts while adding banjo to a couple songs. Kelly Mulhollan contributes mandolin, upright bass as well as some banjo and drum. Other instrumentation is provided by Jon Gagan (bass), Char Rothschild (accordion and tin whistle), Jason Crosby (violin and piano) Michael J. Ronstadt (cello), and John Egenes (Dobro) with co-producer (with Boling) Jono Manson humming and singing.
Love, Dan is a terrific album replete with honesty and an appealing joy for life. It sounds both traditional and fresh (none of these songs are public domain!)
by Donald Teplyske
Released on November 22, 2024
https://fervorcoulee.wordpress.com/2024/11/19/c-daniel-boling-love-dan-review/
KLOF Mag:
C. Daniel Boling’s voice and music lies somewhere between Tom Paxton, Steve Goodman and Stan Rogers. Boling worked as a National Park and a Criminal Investigator for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management before making music on a full-time basis, and ‘Love, Dan’ is his tenth album. Produced by Jono Manson with instrumentation that includes banjo, accordion, mandolin, upright bass, tin whistles, dobro, piano, cello and violin, Love, Dan is very much in a classic 60s coffee house folk troubadour vein, opening with the banjo-accompanied title track, a wry memory of a letter written as a child “sick and tired of being the youngest of three”, signed “Dear Mama, I hate you. Love, Dan”. The song, though, is a love letter of thanks to his mother for making him the man he is as the circle begins again with “I’m holding a letter our youngest just wrote/’Dear Daddy, I hate you. Love, Sam’”.
There’s a touch of Don McLean to the simply fingerpicked and piano-backed I Don’t Know How, one of several protest commentaries as he sings, “Injustice in our name/Hate we disavow/We will find our way…All the harm we do/All that we allow/To the least of these…None of us the same/All alike somehow/Time to turn the tide/I don’t know how”. Coloured by whistles, the idea of communality finds its most potent expression in All Of Us Are Immigrants (“Juan arrived from Cuba just a couple weeks ago/Ernesto came a few years back from deep in Mexico/Fernanda made it yesterday from six months on the run/She fled her home in Chile when the cartel killed her son/Tony’s parents came from China eight decades ago/He served the U.S. Government for 30 years or so”), referencing his own heritage (“1889 without a penny in his hand/My great grandfather worked his passage here from Ireland”), pointing out that “All of us are immigrants no matter when we got here/Some of us came willingly and some of us were brought here…No one knows for sure when that first wand’ring, hunting band/Walked across the Bering Sea when part of it was land/They might have been excited and they may have been afraid/Like millions who came later on they put down roots and stayed”.
Likewise, the Paxton-like strummed Ever Since I Woke chimes with the call to put our unthinking prejudices and attitudes behind us (“I used to ride that train of thought/I used to tell those jokes/A lot of things look different to me/Ever since I woke/I know I am not wide awake/But maybe I can keep/Waking up until the change/Is more than just skin-deep”). That same theme underpins the jaunty ragtime For Better Or Worse (“When I catch myself hating not loving/When I notice I’m angry not glad/I envy the folks doing better/And I’m filled with self-pity and sad/A solution exceeds my acumen…We’re infallibly fallible humans/All working on rising above/We gotta move forward not backward/Gotta do better not worse”), the lyric referencing Martin Luther King (“We took up his rallying cry/We knew we could do more than our parents had done/Or, by God, we at least had to try/We were bearing down fast on disaster/But we made some real progress back then/Now we’re backsliding faster and faster”) and how “When I can’t reach my hand out to my fellow man/Time for my last short ride in the hearse”.
There are playful moments among the more serious: The Leash, a childhood memory of a family dog (“Mom says Joey’s pure mixed breed/The person he loves best is me/We take long walks/I’m almost three/Mama holds the leash/Me and Joey we don’t care/We take Mama everywhere”) that has more received wisdom that it might initially appear (“I hope people everywhere/Love someone who’s always there/To help them hold the leash”) while, set to a Civil War-styled whistling marching military beat and co-written with Paxton, Maya, I Adore You is a love song to his granddaughter. Love of a more romantic nature fuels the mandolin-trilling waltzer Quarter (“We’ve been in love/More than half of our lives/We rate with the luckiest/Husbands and wives/We’ll make three quarters/If either survives … nine-tenths of life/Is arith-a-metic/So, I wanta quarter/I wanta quarter/Oh, I’m gonna court her tonight”) and the bluegrassy The Sycamore Tree (“Oh so careful so your Mama won’t see/Come meet me by the sycamore tree…Slip out the screen door silently…Strip our bodies down to our souls/Skin so thin a heartbeat shows/Praying nobody but the sycamore knows”) and a love that survives the years (“We were so young then but the world has changed/Everything is rearranged/We’re old folks now, anyone can see/But you still meet me by the sycamore tree”).
On several occasions, there’s a reflective note, such as on the circling fingerpicked, cello-warmed If I Were You, on which he recalls, “I was nineteen/Been in college for a year/Couldn’t see from there to here…Life ranged from deadly dull to scary/Might go in the military/Come back strong/Daddy joined the Army Air Corps as a kid/Maybe I could run away the way he did, and his father’s advice (“He said, the service served me well for thirty years/But son, I really don’t believe that’s your career/It’s a hard, hard position/Finding out what you are meant to do”) that poignantly moves to his dementia (“He’s eighty-nine/A brilliant mind no longer clear/He’s not sure why he’s still here/Or where he is/It falls to me/To choose among the awful ways/He’ll have to spend his final days”).
His late father’s also at the heart of the subsequent briskly picked semi-talking blues Whadya Do Today (“I tried to phone my daddy – Had the number halfway dialled/Seemed like I felt him pat my shoulder, and I turned around and smiled/Thought about the thousand times I’d call him up and say/Hello, Papa – Whadya do today?/Well, I think he’d be proud of me – How much I’m like him/But I reckon he’s with Mama – Now they’re happy once again/He tried hard to keep on living, but you know he had to pine/Twenty years alone must seem the longest time”). Again it unfolds the circle in “My wife and I are getting older now – Our kids are grown and gone/We wish they always could go with us for this journey that we’re on/They have their own lives, and it thrills me when one calls me up to say/Hello, Papa – Whadya do today?”, as he sings about looking ahead not back (“How do we go on without the people that we love?/One foot after the other – Know they always wait for us/Face tomorrow come tomorrow – Slip the yoke of yesterday/All that matters is whadya do today”).
Loss and memories surface too on the warm and violin-caressed musing on a failed relationship Something From Your Past (“I believed you’d never go/And when I cry it doesn’t show/We reap exactly what we sow/I didn’t lie/I didn’t know/If there’s nothing to remind me/Where’s my mind supposed to go/Give me something from your past/From the you I used to know”).
The last two numbers strike different paths; Toward The Fire starts out speaking of the California fires before shifting to school shootings, revealing itself as a song in praise of those who run toward the fire and face gun violence in the somewhat timely question “Where are the heroes who will lead/Our country in its gravest need/Whose duty comes before desire/Who won’t condone and won’t conspire/Who’ll always call a liar a liar/And bravely turn and face the fire”. And, finally, Public Domain turns to Tom Paxton, one of his biggest influences, and the vexing nature of how some of his songs have been listed as public domain – and thus royalty-free (“He thinks it’s funny…He knows they’re his/What’s in a name?”), specifically alluding to the song, Bottle Of Wine (“He wrote a little ditty back in 1965/About a wino vagabond just glad to be alive/Now everyone from les enfants to mesdames et messieurs/Declares it a French folksong they’ve sung a hundred years”). It’s fair to say Boling’s a far lesser-known name than Paxton, and while he has a solid following, he and his songs don’t have the recognition they deserve. Still, he keeps on producing albums of outstanding quality because, to quote his lyric, “It’s not like he writes ‘em/For all the fame and the money/That’s just who he is”. And long may he be so.
by Mike Davies
Released on November 22, 2024
https://klofmag.com/2024/11/c-daniel-boling-love-dan/
Scummy Water Tower:
Today we’re going to talk about Albuquerque-based, accomplished folk singer-songwriter C. Daniel Boling. Boling has lived an extraordinary life. For three decades, he was a Ranger and Criminal Investigator in National Parks and Public Lands across the US West. At age 50, he began touring as a full-time musician both as a solo artist and as part of a trio. Since 2019, Boling has been a member of the current lineup of the famous folk trio, The Limeliters. The band has released two albums during Boling’s tenure. The original trio was best known for creating folk songs in a wonderful era for US folk, from 1959 to 1965. In addition to his work as a band member, Boling is a well-regarded songwriter. Boling is a Kerrville New Folk Winner, First Place Songwriter at the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival, First Place Songwriter at the Santa Fe Bluegrass & Old Time Music Festival, and three-time winner at the Walnut Valley Acoustic Music Festival Songwriter Contest.
Aside from his work with The Limeliters, Boling’s lengthy solo full-length discography includes the following releases, Perfectly Stable (1999), Welcome Home (2000), The Old International (2003), He Dreams (2009), LIVE! from the Winter Folk Festival (2009), Sleeping Dogs (2013), These Houses (2016), LIVE at The Kitchen Sink (2018), and New Old Friends (2023) an acclaimed album that Boling co-wrote with the incredible singer-songwriter Tom Paxton.
And now on Friday, November 22nd, Boling’s newest album, Love, Dan will be released via Berkalin Records. From the album’s press release, “Boling wrote these 14 folk songs between 2019 and 2024, and his friend and frequent collaborator Tom Paxton shares co-writer credit on one. While some of the stories are deeply personal, folks will find all the songs quite relatable.”
Besides Boling (who played all guitar, sang lead vocals, and played banjo on two songs), others that contributed to the album include:
Kelly Mulhollan (humming, mandolin, upright bass, banjo, drums)
Jon Gagan (upright bass)
Char Rothschild (accordion, tin whistles)
Jono Manson (humming, backing vocals)
Jason Crosby (violin, piano)
Donna Mulhollan (humming)
Michael J. Ronstadt (cello)
John Egenes (dobro)
The album was co-produced by Jono Manson and Boling.
All songs by C. Daniel Boling except “Maya, I Adore You” by C. Daniel Boling and Tom Paxton.
Recorded and mixed by Jono Manson at The Kitchen Sink Studio, Santa Fe, NM and mastered by David Glasser at AirShow, Boulder, CO.
Love, Dan features exactly what you love to hear in a folk album. Including the expected instrumentation choices, sweet melodies, some fingerpicking guitar, a few ballads and well-crafted lyrics. The album has much more than that including excellent songwriting looking reflectively at the past and present and into the future. In addition, there’s standout singing and backing vocals and great musicianship from each contributor. This album is worth your time to listen.
To get the album, and find out more about the artist, please visit C. Daniel Boling’s comprehensive site. The site truly has everything you need to know and more!
Happy listening!
by Alex M Theel
Released November 22, 2024
https://scummywatertower.com/album-previews/album-preview-c-daniel-boling-love-dan/
2023 review of "New Old Friends" CD - The Rocking Magpie, U.K.
C Daniel Boling
New Old Friends
Berkalin Records
A Voice That Has Lived a Full Life and Has Stories to Tell
I wasn’t sure which album to write about today, so after pondering over the 7 or 8 albums being released later this week, C Daniel Boling ‘s NEW OLD FRIENDS somehow caught my attention. Remembering that each song is a co-write with The Legendary Tom Paxton; and when I’d first received it; the first couple of songs I played last week, back into the hi-fi it went.
That first song, Get a Life! made me smile. Which is always a good start. Name checking John Prine and featuring Tom Paxton on backing vocals and guitar while Boling’s friend Jeff Scroggins picks a mean banjo on a song that will appeal to music fans of all ages and musical denominations.
Listening again today with the sun shining in through the windows; this album of the Classic Folk style we associate with Tom Paxton, Phil Ochs and Ewan MacColl as well as 100 other ‘coffee shop singers’; but so few carrying on the tradition in 2023. As you’d expect with Tom Paxton at the helm and Daniel recording his 9th album; the songwriting, while deceptively simple is actually quite exceptional and the arrangements follow suit too.
Much of the Folk Music I receive is quite po-faced and the singer/songwriter taking themselves far too seriously in their quest to prove themselves in front of their peers. Here, while the subject matter can be deeply personal and serious; Old Friends as an example is about the singers’ boyhood friend who goes to war and comes back ‘changed’ … nothing new there you may think; but this particular song reels you in and doesn’t let you loose until the final notes fade into the ether.
I wasn’t sure what to expect the first time I saw the title Bear Spray and Barb Wire; but this tale of being out in the back of beyond and accidentally puncturing the can of Bear Spray. Who knew Folk Music could be so much fun?
Of course it’s a ‘given’ that l.o.v.e makes an appearance several times; and C Boling Daniel really does handle it with care.
The keys finds our narrator reminiscing about his life via the various cars he’s owned; which is a pretty cool thing to do and I can imagine many people (myself included) smiling while we do the exact thing after hearing this song. Tucked away in the middle, where you’d least expect it is the rambunctious toe-tapper My Hick Pick-up. A smartly observed and fun song that features some of the funkiest banjo I’ve heard in many a year.
We Can Still Waltz follows a similar path with Boling being grateful that, regardless of the aches and pains and faulty body parts; he can still manage a short waltz on a Saturday night.
It’s not funny-haha; but ironically funny that songs like the jaunty This Town Has No Cafe, How Did You Know and especially Of You and Me are so obviously aimed at a mature demographic, who like ‘looking back’ more than ‘looking forward’ …. and then I realised that I am now that age too! When did that happen?
While there are many treasures here of various hues; and overall the word ‘delightful’ springs to mind; two songs have really, really captured my heart and they will yours too. We all know someone that fits The Quiet Ones like a velvet glove; I certainly do that’s for sure and that easily makes this incisive song a Favourite; not least because of the bewitching guitar throughout. The other is probably the saddest song here; and features some stinging harmonica too; and that’s Friendless Heart. The type of song that catches you unawares; as you didn’t think anyone else anywhere in the world felt …. but here it is in both words and music.
Not only is this pure and simple Folk Music; C Daniel Boling instills every square inch of his songs with the soul of Americana that so many younger singers strive for but miss by a Country mile.
In C Daniel Boling we have a singer with a voice that has lived a full life and has stories to tell, that we all want to hear.
Released August 25th 2023
https://rockingmagpie.wordpress.com/2023/08/24/c-daniel-boling-new-old-friends/?fbclid=IwAR0WgqsoZlrlr9bnD3T0fQnCT5e5DSad0uUSiLx0W8Ob6nzz5VkntH-ShhY