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CON'T:
Darryl Purpose is in that group of folk singers. To be a folk singer does not mean that you simply recycle old ballads from the British Isles or that your music carries with it political anger or homespun virtues. All that matters is that you write music which will appeal to other folks. Wherever two or more are gathered...
Now to be a good folk singer is another matter, and that is where folks like Darryl Purpose come in. When he begins his new disc, A Crooked Line, it’s with an absolutely beautiful voice that gently chronicles the unlikely story of how Rutherford Hayes visited California, the first president to do so. The melody is beautifully soothing, and fellow folk singer Tracy Grammer (of the talented duo Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer) adds a subtle, warm harmony, and while a pedal steel winds in as subtly as the violin piece, it’s the finger-style guitar with its inviting run that centers the piece along with Purpose’s voice. Much in the song and Purpose’s phrasings would fit James Taylor perfectly, and Purpose’s rendition feels just as warm and soothing as anything James has ever done.
That soothing beauty is not what Purpose is after for the whole disc, and he immediately injects some energy and growl into the rolling upbeat pulse of “A Crooked Line.” Then he delivers a minor-keyed acoustic piece written from the point of view of a woman whose husband comes back from Vietnam mentally separated from real life and then becomes physically separated from her without any warning, leaving her to wonder how she would respond to his return if it should happen. Most of A Crooked Line rotates around these three styles: the tender, pretty piece; the tough minor-keyed look at the tougher aspects of life; and the faster-paced narratives of varying subject matter. Darryl Purpose handles all three well. When he’s singing, his voice often glides between the toughness and the beauty, as if it is perfectly balanced between peace and turmoil and can find each in the other effortlessly.
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