I love this album to bits, I feel like I've stumbled on someone who has taken all the threads of my life and made fresh sense of them all.
As far as I can work out this is all the more remarkable as 'Paradise' represents a mid-life fresh start for a man who's never bothered with the music industry till now. Having discovered how to be happy and content in his Pennsylvania home, he's also discovered an urge to communicate to the world the possibility that we can find this for ourselves.
The title song, 'Paradise' tells it all ; using the tag 'What if...?' where John Lennon used 'Imagine...', this is a far more grounded set of propositions about where we go wrong in life and where we might go right, culminating in the line 'What if paradise was just a really good day?'. This idea is taken up in 'Love What I Do': ' I only make a pretty good living/ But I'm living a real good life/ Get up like the sun and have some fun/ It's the key to making everyday new'. Accept what life gives you and give freely in return, that's the general idea.
Scott Paul loves playing with words and this comes out best in the political songs, especially 'Roll With The Punches', a mini-epic of a story song with a Dylanesque catalogue of characters, a sardonic humour for the trials and tribulations of life and a rolling funk that builds and builds until you're left floored and need to go back to the beginning to catch all the detail in the words. 'New World Order' is a shorter but similarly sharp take on the state of the world and both these songs contain enough short, sharp observations to be the seed material for several dozen political essays.
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As if this mature and intelligent songwriting weren't enough, 'Paradise' has a team of musicians and producers (Scott Paul himself and Teri Amico) dedicated to flying the flag for the strand of Americana founded by The Band. Piano, drums and, above all, guitars sound like Robbie, Rick and the boys re-incarnate. Even Scott's vocals at times have a hint of Levon Helm about them, though it has to be admitted he doesn't in fact have the strongest of voices. Somehow the production manages to get round this and the words always come through clearly and allows him the space not to have to fight against his band.
Whether this album is a 'grower' that will achieve the acclaim it deserves I really don't know, but I urge you to seek it out - it's great.
(John (Biscuits and Gravy) Davy http://flyinshoes.ning.com/profile/JohnDavy)
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