Sam Weber – Everything Comes True

Simple song-writing, no flashy solos, with excellent vocals...

Canadian troubadour Sam Weber has been around the block, musically speaking. His third album ‘Everything Comes True’ speaks about the reality of being a touring musician living on the road. Most notably on ‘Blackout’, which speaks honestly about how touring effects relationships. But given the somewhat sombre nature of his lyrics, musically ‘Everything Comes True’ bounces along with a smile on its face.

This is down to the who’s who of session players Weber roped in: pedal steel guitarist Dylan Day, Richard Hinman, Elizabeth Lea, and Justin Stanley.

While these are Weber’s songs the album feels different to his previous releases. Whether its being surrounded by a cavalcade of session talent, a more immediate form of song writing but ‘Everything Comes True’ has a timeless Americana vibe to it. The Band, Jackson Browne and Gillian Welch all feel like reference points, but Weber manages to make every song undeniably his.

Stand out track ‘Obligated’ is a prime example of this. At times it feels like Leon Russel or Randy Newman in a Toy Story groove. The melodies are catchy but there is a playfulness that underpins Weber’s story of love, loss and redemption. And this is what Weber does better than his peers. He crafts devilishly intricate songs but gives them such a bounce that it covers to complexity, on initial listen.

Lyrically he doesn’t mess about either. The chorus of ‘Obligated to let you down’ pretty much tells you that he wants to do right by you, but will ultimately let you down, whether he wants to or not. This level of honesty follows on in ‘Mendocino’. Here Weber sounds like Josh T. Pearson trying to write an upbeat country/folk song. Sonorous vocals float over a bubbly melody.

Sam Weber has delivered his strongest release to date. Simple song-writing, no flashy solos, with excellent vocals. ‘Everything Comes True’ leaves him nowhere to hide if it goes wrong. The album is feels like a well-cooked meal with standard indigents, prepared the old-fashioned way. He isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel. He isn’t trying to be edgy or forward thinking. He has released an album that hankers back to a time when music was recorded live in a studio with everyone playing at once. A time when the session player, and the songwriter, were king. It’s a brave choice and one that remarkably works well.

Ultimately, you are slightly taken aback with Weber’s audacity to release something so focused, yet uncomplicated in a time when everything feels unfocused and complicated.

7/10

Words: Nick Roseblade

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