Sometimes the hardest music to play well is the simplest stuff. That’s especially true of the blues and why masters of the one-note style (B.B. King), the unpretentious verse (Mississippi John Hurt), and the unsophisticated melody (Reverand Gary Davis) are the most revered. These great artists understood that the humblest song can have the most significant impact through its very guilelessness. Singer/guitarist Reed Turchi’s new album, World on Fire, takes that lesson to heart.
World on Fire contains eight old-style country blues numbers stripped down to their essence. Turchi sings and plays acoustic guitar without frills. He doesn’t reach for high notes or strum fancy chords. He vocalizes in a conversational tone so that one can understand the words, and more importantly, feel them as well. The music’s spiritual and emotional centers matter more than their particulars. A small band of sympathetic players joins Turchi: Eric Burns on guitar, Seth Barden on bass, and Joseph Yount on drums. The four of them arrange the traditional material into contemporary fare by keeping the tempos hopping. Even the slower tracks have a driving beat that keeps the energy flowing.
The lyrics are timeless and fit both past and more modern circumstances. They range from the basic with opening lines such as “I’m going home on the morning train”, “Don’t leave me baby”, and “Well I want Jesus to walk with me”) to more moralistic final sentences like “I’m all alone”, “Yeah when I think about it I hang my head and cry”, and “When I lay my burden down.” There may be nothing new here, but that’s the point. Listening to World on Fire is like listening to an old 78 rpm blues recording without the scratches and the static. The album is cleanly recorded and mastered, with ample aural space between the singer and the players.
The world is different now than it was in the past. As the album title suggests, the world is on fire. One can imagine what this phrase meant during different epochs in American history—when the world is at war, natural disasters occur, and economic depressions plunge people into poverty, among other events. Turchi approaches the conflagration from a more pious and personal perspective. “Watchya gonna do when the world’s on fire?” he asks. His answer suggests a trust in the divine. That simultaneously indicates the world’s problems are impossible for one person to solve, and only faith can provide a resolution.
Considering the state of the world today, Turchi finds that plain truths provide solace. There’s the love of god and affection for others (both physical and romantic) that also matter. The lyrics suggest that being alone is the greatest sorrow, whether one yearns for spiritual redemption or craves human companionship.
The album concludes with a brief, upbeat instrumental coda, titled “Reprise”. Without words, Reed and company demonstrate how joining together in song can make life sweeter and more optimistic. There may be no way to put out the fires that plague our existence, but we can find support and solace through connecting with one another. When someone in the future asks what you did to make the world a better place during this dark period, you can answer that you never lost hope in a higher spirit or your fellow beings. The music on this record shows that it’s an acceptable response.