Buddy Magazine – January 2007
By Tom Geddie
On his first my-name-is-on-the-front-of-the-album
effort in 17 years, Randy Brown delivers a solid album with lyrics that at
their best verge on poetry and with memorable musical accompaniment that fits
each song well. Dream Big’s songs are mostly about common life experiences that
we can all relate to.
The CD best songs/performances are toward the end where Brown laments on “Tempus Fugit” that time is a bird of prey, “the wildest bird, that flutters just beyond your reach” and on “Truth is a Rabbit” (in a bramble bush)”. The latter title comes from a Pete Seeger quote.
The CDs last song “Body of Clay” is
the last song recorded by Brown’s now-defunct band Jealousy Motel – John
Defoore on electric guitar and mandolin, Dirje Smith on acoustic and electric
cellos, harmony vocals and Brown.
Musically, Dream Big is a treat. Brown adds guitar, mandolin, autoharp, percussion, lap steel and on one song bass. Gordon McLeod adds fiddle, mandolin, guitar, piano, percussion, clarinet and penny whistle. Bob Gentry adds upright and electric bass and drums. Lynn Adler does backup vocals.
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DREAM BIG - Randy Brown
ANOTHER PREACHERS CHILD SETS TO MUSIC THE BATTLE BETWEEN HIS DREAMS AND HIS NIGHTMARES...
...HIS HOPES AND HIS FEARS, HIS IDEAS AND HIS IDEALS.
Beneath the smooth surface of this slick production, this display of tasteful musicianship,
this proof of vocal range and quality, this embodiment of harmony and fellowship,
this hour of barbless sound, the certainty of pitch and tember, the battle simmers.
Randy presents front and center stage, Time and Testosterone as they front for Doubt and Anger
in this intelligent depiction of the battle that some relegate to the musty basements of their minds.
(When Randy sings, "...stumble your way to 'Good-bye,'" we know it's not the beginning but the end of that effort to verbalize what has already come to pass. But can it be recovered?)
The children of preachers have no choice: they preach.
They moralize and they pray and they loath themselve for it but they can't help it.
They tell us, "it's just the rain. It's not the sky," and watch to see if that works for us.
THE TRUTH IS A RABBIT and we all know how slippery rabbits are and how many rabbits there are to catch.
Is money a drug or is it just something some people never get enough of?
Is comfort a drug or is it just another rabbit we can't hold onto when our brain is constantly questioning our heart?
The wealth of the body can not make up for the poverty of the spirit!
"Body of clay, body of clay. Heaven and earth have passed away and so this body of clay."
It's no wonder some of us shake in our sleep. We are so sure of what happens to the flesh
but what will our mind do when it loses it's earthen tether, the body of clay.
When the naked soul stands defenseless in the cold light of the dying sun, Dream Big.
Pray for Randy but don't tell I told you to.
JMT