This is the debut release from Seattle based folk artist STEFF KAYSER, and is a six track mini-album that lasts just over thirty minutes. There are a variety of styles between tracks, some which work extremely wall, and one that just doesn't.
Opening with the title track, 'The Roads that Cross the Great Divide', STEFF has certainly played a strong hand with this one. A lovely folk tune with country overtones and some wonderful lyrical turns. This is a song all about life's journeys and the choices we make: - “The roads that cross the great divide, 'Tween honesty and my crooked pride/ They angle up from either side, and grow steeper with every passage.” This blends perfectly with:- “The roads that span the great abyss, That separates my that from this/ My wrong from right and my pain from bliss, They grow wider with every crossing.”
Following on from this is what I regarded as the high watermark of the CD, a track entitled 'I'd Do It All Over Again', which is an affectionate and heartfelt tribute to STEFF's father, recounting his steps in life. This is set to a gypsy swing beat and features some lovely clarinet playing from Joel Tepp. The lyrics chart some milestone stages in his father's life: - “I was raised in the roaring 20's In a little township by the sea/ From Jutland, Funen, Zeeland, We kids all loved that feelin' when bound for Tivoli...By my teens we faced The Great Depression, Like a decade with no sign of spring/ But we still found distraction, With Duke and Charlie Chaplin, Borge and that Goodman swing”
This is an absolutely wonderful track which manages to steer clear of overt sentimentality while still getting the message across.
'Chinatown', is an acoustic folk number which is the longest track on the album clocking in at more than seven minutes, although it doesn't seem that long. This is a story about love and loss: - “They say idle women cry when they're alone. They say you reap what you sow/ They say they saw her on the Greyhound. Eastbound, alone, going home.” After this you have a folk song called 'A Garden of Light', which features some good vocals from Camila Recchio, which works well with STEFF's.
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After this, the quality control goes straight out of the window with 'Party Pooper Suzie (I'll Excuse Myself)', which tries to fit some humerous rhymes around bodily functions, but, for me, it just didn't work. It was just too great a departure from what STEFF had done before, and I found myself pressing the skip button on my CD player very rapidly.
The CD closes with 'The Water Is Wide', a traditional folk tune, because as STEFF says in his liner notes “I just ran out of material.” As a closing tune there isn't anything wrong with it at all, but my thoughts on this were still swimming after the dire previous track.
All in all, the first four tracks were excellent, and the folk mixed well with the gypsy swing and country styles, but next time, please leave the humour out of it. It's fine in a club where the punters are all pissed, but not right for the CD. Nonetheless, this is really worth getting hold of as long as you skip track five!
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