David Bronson's "Songbird" Reviewed
Bronson’s Questions
The first time I heard “Songbird”, I was having lunch with Tomas Doncker and David Bronson and they were playing me tracks off their respective upcoming albums, and man… now that is what I call having lunch!
I begged Bronson to send me the mp3 but he hadn’t completed the mastering process and the guy is a perfectionist, but now I have the entire Questions album (released early next year) and now Guitar World is streaming the lead off single, the simply immaculate “Songbird”.
Imagine if Cat Stevens had all his gifts returned to him in a flash of magical acumen and then imagine he got a choir of angels to sing back up and then imagine he managed to grasp an axiom you’ve never had him say before, and then imagine he sounds not like Cat but like David Bronson and that is the effect of “Songbird”. Robin Clark and Lea-Lorien Alomar are the backup singers. Lea’s singing is the beautiful counterpoint to Robin – the high notes, as David has noted and everything is not underlined quite, but it adds a Gospel sound to a pure as virgin white folk song and all of it builds to a glorious glorious ending.
I was speaking to Bronson Thursday and he was in the process of rehearsing (a big gig at Rockwood on November 21st) and putting together a tour, just up to his neck in the logistics of the business and I can’t help wonder how creating such a perfect thing must feel. there is no answer, there is no time. It simply is. There is no answer to the question, just the song itself, and that’s answer enough.
The best song on the album? Of the type, yes. There are other songs as great but they aren’t folk songs. And the question, the opinion, the axiom Bronson has found is superb “outside I hear a songbird and I think she has it right, she is just singing, she is not asking why”. There is a deep and simple truth here and a song to back it up, like the perfectly formed patterns in nature placed there by the hand of god, or the hand of natural selection, it needs nothing else. It is complete.
A masterpiece, stream it here,
Grade: A
