This Texan born singer-songwriter, now settled in New York, is an incurable romantic so the four songs on this EP explore the timeless, and timelessly frustrating, quest for happiness and true love.
The message of Your Heart Belongs To Me is that keeping things simple may be the key. The song is in the form of a reported conversation in which the woman makes it clear she isn't likely to be wooed by promises of the moon, stars or lavish gifts. She craves devotion rather than diamonds - more emotionally challenging (though kinder on the pocket!).
On Take A Breath things take an existential turn advocating the enjoyment of good times while they last. The sorrowful notes of Katie Boyd on cello remind us that such pleasures are fleeting.
This paves the way for Misty Eyes & A Troubled Mind, a classic country tune of heartache; proof that women don't have the monopoly on tearful nights and lonesome blues.
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Take Me At My Word ends proceedings on a cautiously optimistic note although a long distance love still has to navigate dead ends and closed doors.
I praised Dickinson's full length album Lonesome Traveller of 2013 for the warmth of the tunes although I felt his journeyman lyrics erred on the predictable side.
His four new tunes are sensitively sung and expertly arranged but again they seem more like exercises in style than songs from the heart.
Jarrod Dickenson's website
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