Just in time for spring, we have the bright sounds of Charles Ellsworth and his Honeysuckle Summer. A native of the White Mountains in Arizona, currently residing in Brooklyn, Ellsworth has spent a great deal of his life surrounded by environments that tend to leave their mark on a person’s soul. Add that to the storytelling that Ellsworth weaves in and around the music, and musical magic is created.
As I was listening to the music, I could hear the different influences coming together to create a new sound. The guitars, mixed in with piano, organ, and a collection of different percussion. There is an age to the melodies, yet it’s new. I am reminded of David Wilcox, a singer/songwriter who had a bit of mainstream success in the late eighties. My husband and I loved a song in particular that I keep remembering as I listen to this album. “Rusty Old American Dream”. I am not sure why, as it’s guitar only. I have a feeling it’s the storytelling. Wilcox made an impression on us as a storyteller in his songs. Ellsworth is just as strong in his lyrics. You can feel the characters as they interact with the music. In “Miami, AZ” there is a pedal steel guitar that evokes a sound that seems to pull a long lost memory out of the mists of my mind. The story in this song is powerful, as it paints the picture of small town Arizona life not far from where Ellsworth grew up. “Truth or consequences of the choices we made/ when you live by the sword and the cool of the blade/ The back of the romancing we’d been counting on/ Kids playing at love, but so afraid to grow up.” It goes on, getting deeper. “I don’t wanna sit around and watch this copper mine dry/ It’ll suck away my life one paycheck at a time/ …Let’s put Miami in the mirror, and find that horizon line”
“Laundromat” has a great shuffling rock vibe to it. It all fits with story in the song. A gentlemen is a bit mixed up about his love life, and compares it with the spinning motion of the laundry machines in the laundromat where he met a girl. “I watched the future and the truth collide/ I’m sitting in this hotel with you humming on my mind/ the spinning of the Earth, I think it started to say/that you, can, try to cut and run but you won’t get away from it all”
Charles Ellsworth is a great listen. Let’s face it, most everyone desires something different every now and then. His style of music is just the right blend to appeal to most anyone. Honeysuckle Summer dropped on March 5. Make sure to check it out, and be inspired.
I’m Music Magazine Photographer/Writer Michele Hancock
FOR MORE INFO ON CHARLES ELLSWORTH:
https://www.charlesellsworthmusic.com
