# 4. Dylan LeBlanc - Paupers Field
(Rough Trade, August 23rd 2010)
In the music business there has always been a lot of "oh, he's the next Bob Dylan, and he's the new Springsteen" and so on. Now I think I'm going to be the first to say that Dylan LeBlanc might well be the next Ryan Adams. Hah, you didn't see that one coming? Well, I think that a lot of you did.
Paupers Field has been one of my favourites this year as soon as I heard it the first time, and I get that Ryan Adams feeling. It's a kind of Love is Hell but with more twang. Another thing he has in common with mr. Adams is that he has the always stunning and great Emmylou Harris singing backing vocals on his debut album. The hauntingly beautiful song "If the Creek Don't Rise" is this album's "Oh, My Carolina". Well, in a way at least.
The second song and first single from the album "If Time Were for Wasting" is the song that drags you in, with it's jangly guitars and homey feel of the rhythm section, but it's the slow burning heartbreakers that really grips you by the heart. Dylan LeBlanc may only be 20 years old but boy does he know how it feels when your heart breaks. I can feel my tears swelling up just talking about a song like "Tuesday Night Rain". The way his voice almost cracks when he sings the lines:
"And all the liquor in the world couldn't save me
From the pain that you left at the door.."
Man, you shouldn't be 20, and feel like that - but I guess you do, and I probably did too. It hurts, but it makes some beautiful songs.
In "Ain't Too Good at Losing" LeBlanc sings "And if misery was the ocean, I would've already drowned". Not exactly a feel good album this one. That's also what's so great about it. Country music is supposed to hurt. "5th Avenue Bar" is another classic tune. Some of these songs even has a kind of Townes Van Zandt greatness.
Debuts as good as this one are seldom. The already mentioned Ryan Adams had one, and there are some others but to deliver an LP like this when you're only 20. Great things are in store for this guy.
Dylan LeBlanc - Tuesday Night Rain
(Rough Trade, August 23rd 2010)
In the music business there has always been a lot of "oh, he's the next Bob Dylan, and he's the new Springsteen" and so on. Now I think I'm going to be the first to say that Dylan LeBlanc might well be the next Ryan Adams. Hah, you didn't see that one coming? Well, I think that a lot of you did.
Paupers Field has been one of my favourites this year as soon as I heard it the first time, and I get that Ryan Adams feeling. It's a kind of Love is Hell but with more twang. Another thing he has in common with mr. Adams is that he has the always stunning and great Emmylou Harris singing backing vocals on his debut album. The hauntingly beautiful song "If the Creek Don't Rise" is this album's "Oh, My Carolina". Well, in a way at least.
The second song and first single from the album "If Time Were for Wasting" is the song that drags you in, with it's jangly guitars and homey feel of the rhythm section, but it's the slow burning heartbreakers that really grips you by the heart. Dylan LeBlanc may only be 20 years old but boy does he know how it feels when your heart breaks. I can feel my tears swelling up just talking about a song like "Tuesday Night Rain". The way his voice almost cracks when he sings the lines:
"And all the liquor in the world couldn't save me
From the pain that you left at the door.."
Man, you shouldn't be 20, and feel like that - but I guess you do, and I probably did too. It hurts, but it makes some beautiful songs.
In "Ain't Too Good at Losing" LeBlanc sings "And if misery was the ocean, I would've already drowned". Not exactly a feel good album this one. That's also what's so great about it. Country music is supposed to hurt. "5th Avenue Bar" is another classic tune. Some of these songs even has a kind of Townes Van Zandt greatness.
Debuts as good as this one are seldom. The already mentioned Ryan Adams had one, and there are some others but to deliver an LP like this when you're only 20. Great things are in store for this guy.
Dylan LeBlanc - Tuesday Night Rain
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