RJ Comer
ONE LAST KISS
Growling Moon Music
Soundtrack For A Hot August Night in a Tennessee Backwater.
It’s fascinating what music can do for a person; be they a listener like you or I but actual musicians themselves; as it seems that the ‘power of music’ has been a golden thread in RJ Comer’s life be it his time as a violent addict or later after cleaning himself up and discovering God; as an attorney……music got him through some dark times.
Now, many years later he’s a full time singer-songwriter living in the Tennessee woods making music and occasionally touring the United States , North, South, East and West to popular acclaim it has to be said.
The rather snappy Under a Lover’s Moon opens proceedings with some neat fiddle and guitar interjections complimenting RJ’s rich and expressive baritone voice. The song itself is one of the few love songs I’ve heard recently which is written and about a genuine couple of mature years who actually seem to like each other; which gives it an extra star at RMHQ.
Obviously not everything is as upbeat as that opener; but that’s not to say that the songs from the darker edges of life; House Grown Cold and Still Doin’ Time spring to mind don’t have a brittle beauty to them too; as they do.
After playing in bar bands for many years, it’s obvious RJ Comer can turn his hand to most genres of popular music; but he generally sticks to the Country-Blues format I normally associate with Townes, Guy and Rodney; but he’s got a lot more strings to his bow than that as Desert Mama and If I Could Be Water prove; with something of an early Neil Diamond ‘feel’ to them at times.
Like all the great singer-songwriter’s Comer digs deep into the darkest corners of his memories for his songs and comes out the other end with such raw delights as Bad Day in Paradise and You’d Drink Like I Do which are both perfect for the wee small hours of the morning when you feel that the whole world is against you……and it might be; but RJ Comer let’s you know you aren’t alone.
The record closes with the title track ONE LAST KISS; a sad old tale with a truly mournful fiddle accompaniment about the singer’s father but could easily be interpreted by any of us to describe many relationships that have haunted us too.
Hmmmm; where to go for a Favourite Song’? There have been a few contenders; not least the first and last tracks and more than once I’ve played Let’s Run on repeat several times, but I’m going out on a limb with the nigh on Gothic Cain’s Blood, which not only describes Comer’s life that straddled good and evil in equal quantities; but again this is the mark of a great songwriter; could describe most of us and not least myself over the years, which is quite some achievement.
I love music in many formats which is why I do what I do with this website; and every now and again a really rare talent comes along like RJ Comer; and if he’s not too old to grasp the nettle…….he could and should be a Major Star in the Americana world if there is any justice.
Or he may just enjoy his anonymity living with his wife in that Tennessee backwater; and who can blame him?
Released 15th June 2018
https://www.rjcomer.com/