(This review originally appeared in the February, 2006 issue of the San Diego Troubadour–www.sandiegotroubadour.com)

Aaron Bowen

A Night At Sea

by Simeon Flick

Aaron Bowen’s first solo release sails in like a Mississippi riverboat fresh off the oceanic void; he’s the captain of his own lonely ship, adrift on “Waves of regret,” and resigned in the depths of his own pathos. “A Night At Sea” finds Bowen back on shore, successfully putting the troubled captain’s log to an antithetically relaxing, campfire-evoking musical revue.

“A Night At Sea” is a strikingly subtle fusion of old and new, as though Woody Guthrie and Robert Johnson learned some jazz and possessed Paul Simon during a séance held at James Taylor’s house. The vintage atmosphere is further corroborated in the accompanying packaging; the ornate early 20th century-style cover finds Bowen posing in black and white with an antique guitar and hat next to a covered bridge. He continues to wax archaic by splitting the songs into two acts, with an “Interlude” and “Encore,” and presenting the credits under the heading “Cast (In Order Of Appearance)” like an old vaudeville show.

Bowen’s contemporarily trained hands deftly execute old-time fingerpicking and modern-age percussive plucking as they alternate through both traditional and innovative chord changes on tunes like “Friends And Enemies” and “Real Love.” And something convincing in Bowen’s earnestly high wisp of a tenor genuinely makes you want to help him when he sings the potentially lugubrious lines “I am all alone in this hell/Come and rescue me from myself” in “Tea Cup Boat.”

The supporting instruments–everything from slide, pedal steel and lead guitar to the wonderfully scarce rhythm section–are gathered around the central hearth of acoustic guitar and voice and warm their hands on the heat cast outward by the flames of his strong, memorable songwriting. You’ll get chills up your spine listening to Steve Peavey’s pedal steel textures as they support the pensively mellow vibe on the aforementioned “Tea Cup Boat.”

There’s not a lot of variety here, but the homogeneity lends itself well to a unity of mood and concept that seems increasingly rare and difficult to pull off, which this record does.

Buy this CD and you will be transported to another time and place, adrift on the ocean with Aaron Bowen, who won’t feel so forlorn with you on board. www.aaronbowenmusic.com.