DOUG KWARTLER - SILVER METEOR

Silver Meteor is an act of faith. It has to be. There is such a quiet sense of urgency to this record, the second solo release by New York songwriter Doug Kwartler, that it needs to be rooted in the music that got us through -- folk, country, rock and roll, and whatever else it has been cross-pollinated or categorized with; in other words, American roots music. The lineage of great voices we know - Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Jay Farrar - have used this music as a palette of vast expression. At times, even in these great careers, this power comes across with impatience and restlessness. In the finest instances though, these voices create documents that capture a moving moment in an artist's history. These cases -- Nebraska, Trace, Blood on the Tracks, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road -- are steeped faithfully in American roots music as if there's no time to stray while speaking breathlessly in unbelievable spaces, as if there are no words to spare.

Silver Meteor slips into this line of recordings. Whereas Halfway House, Kwartler's previous record, is a strong and broad-stroked debut, his second release is a focused, rock-solid litany of great American songs. There is the deep-rooted though updated American imagery, (trains, parkways, rivers and cars,) planted along the way to discover, enjoy and feel in your blood. Within the layers there is wariness of what lies ahead mixed with a desperate sense of hope and purpose being clung to at all costs. Here, you'll be confronted with the challenge to listen hard.

And so, in "Nothing," the record's fourth track, while there is a fearsome near-loss, ("I thought I lost you today,") a melancholy musical celebration fills speechless gasps with sweet-and-sour, focused guitar solos. Doug even discovers (and then demonstrates) his faith that a great song shows many colors. Thus, a hushed second version of "Nothing" is placed as if with careful deliberation, beyond the conclusion of the ten primary tracks.

There is faith in the power of the song itself. "Wilmington" insists on it. "Do as I command without a fight," Kwartler shouts at the city that he's turned to for inspiration in a song that parallels the very craft of songwriting with the struggles of a committed relationship. An artist's work about their craft is a line in the sand, a definition, seen on the upward arc of a career and when Kwartler sings, "Let the day live on in sin," it lays down the central tension in Silver Meteor -- fight and sometimes struggle to live and remember well, (and faithfully,) but leave what is beyond control as lessons in history.

Desperate times call for desperate measures in "I Need Your Darkness," when the singer asks his lover to, "show me your bullets and I'll show you my guns," looking for her to reveal all in exchange for him doing the same in an ultimate display of trust. "Nashville," the rollicking call to the road and "82nd Street," a nostalgic dirge on Brooklyn also populate the inherent landscape. While these places are important signposts, the acute observations on relationships and personal insights give this journey a higher power and bring Silver Meteor to a level of accomplishment too often missed in a fragmented and confused pop-music world.

"There are no subtle changes, what is is what will be," comes on as a credo in "Come Tomorrow (Caroline.)" That the writer relies on rock's favorite muse, Caroline, also shows what was is what is. Discover the title track's revision of American workingman mythology as a powerful love story that carries you all the way through to "Beautiful Commotion," the closing ballad that brings grand metaphor to intimate communication, stripped and acoustic. As if that's all that matters.

And then ending on a true bonus, what happens when this music gets worked up in front of a roomful of people? A live recording of "Mars," from Halfway House, complete with hoots and beer-bottle rattling. It goes by fast, which leaves one longing to disappear in Silver Meteor many times over.

The Roots Music Report called Halfway House, "…an ingeniously compiled CD that has potential to climb to the top of the charts…" Alt.Country Tab called it, "…quite brilliant…" and Ctrlaltcountry said it was "One hell of a roots rock records." Silver Meteor promises to top that with 10 remarkable tracks of honest and gritty songwriting.

Look for Kwartler to tour this fall, 2004 in support of Silver Meteor.