David Kav: Rainy Day Soundtrack

Searing lyrics, soaring vocals, driving rhythms strummed passionately from an acoustic guitar. Harmonies that lift hairs and bring up gooseflesh. Unexpected chord changes causing you to stop and LISTEN.

 

This is David Kav’s newest CD, “Better You Here Than Alone.”

 

I’m listening to it for the umpteenth time on a rainy day at the end of a rainy week, and it’s the perfect soundtrack. Not because it’s dreary or drab; in fact, it’s just the opposite. It’s got a bluesy feel that does what blues do best – take a bad situation and pour it out for the world to commisserate. His songs tell tales of love, deception, and lies lies lies, but they’re sung with such passion and energy and commitment that the message becomes more about learning and living than losing.

 

Singer/songwriters are expected to be “deep” in a cliched caricature of angst. Somehow, David seems to go beyond that cartoon image to a, perhaps, deeper place. Each song is musically individual enough so that he escapes a cookie-cutter oh-woe-is-me busker in the subway station sound. “Two Avenues” is a jaunty tribute to forks in the road. “Muse” is a ballad that crescendos gradually until it fairly pierces the heart, reminiscent of Ravel’s Bolero. Jen Porter’s guest appearance as the lead vocalist on “Please Let Me Be” brings a powerful woman’s passion into the middle of this man’s outpouring of regrets and missed opportunities. You hear a bit of a crack in his voice during the haunting “Yesterday’s News” as he sings “I’ve never, never felt so near the sunshine.”

 

What makes this not just a good but the perfect rainy day CD? The last song on the CD is a duet with Jen Porter. It opens with whistling, and before it’s over you hear this line:

“All I know is that the sun is shining now through the gray sky and the clouds.”

 

Catch David tonight at Goose Island for his CD release show. He doesn’t go on until 1am, so there’s plenty of time to wade through the streets.

 

Full disclosure: David thanks me in the liner notes of this CD. He has been a featured artist on The Local Tourist and as you can tell, I’m a fan! ~Theresa


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