Scott Chasolen
Living In Limbo
(Amarca)
A flumpy acoustic flows into a bright jangle all under Scott Chasolen’s sweet voice on his opening tune here, “Limbo,†from his new release Living In Limbo. This tune, like the rest, sees Chasolen (who wrote all twelve here and produced) placing perfect backing vocals, sweet piano plinks, and shaker, etc. creating nice little gems throughout.
Chasolen’s warm voice floats around the acoustic plucked “Bluebird,†one that makes full use of backing vocal layering very CSN-like (although all Chasolen). “Northern Lights,†is another standout, wonderful backing vocals, just the right placement of Wurlitzer and a lyric of searching love that cuts pretty deep, despite the lightness of the music.
I really like the simple yet effective piano backing of “Only You,†another one where it sounds like Chasolen is singing right to the listener, alone in a room, in a concert for one; the man has that kind of intimacy in his voice. And “Missing,†featuring some perfectly orchestrated strings, those backing vocals again and a piano line that holds you tight.
“Closer,†the last song, again featuring piano (I seem to respond most to this man’s piano tunes) is a sweet, positive love song. Slightly sappy (kinda of skirting David Gates territory actually), it works perfectly to end this collection in a kind of the culmination of all that we’ve been through of the past eleven.
A well-established NYC-based musician, Chasolen is highly sought after for session work and also plays in the well-known Pink Floyd tribute band, The Machine. On Living In Limbo, we get an intimate peek into the solo work of this talented player/singer/songwriter.
