Todd Warner Moore
Path Overgrown
(Todd Warner Moore)
Todd Warner Moore presents a rich singer-songwriter-acoustic guitar player collection in his new Path Overgrown. With a near-perfect voice, great production and wonderful musicians behind him, I would be hard-pressed to find a better release of this kind here at the beginning of the new decade.
The title track here starts off this dozen. It’s a lilting, acoustic guitar-led ode, sweet single note electric guitar lines from Roberto Diana and backing vocals from Leah Hart and Nicole Stella filling it out. The acoustic guitar leading weaves through the Latin-like shuffle of “Little Cobra,†while Moore manages his sweetest picking of the first half of Path Overgrown on the wonderful ballad “Buildings.†I like this one especially, again Moore mixing his expression-filled voice with his backing vocalists and weaving some strings into the sadness.
From the flicky, “Ways,†a rumination on what we say and how what we do again and again affects us, to an even faster “Gratitude,†story song, to Moore’s most passionate singing on what might be my favorite here, “The Day They Came Together,†with its strings, slide, and backing vocals, we just keep getting hit with gem after gem from Moore here.
A picked acoustic, some sweet violin from William Stewart and, once again, an expertly layered vocal mix informs the last here, “And They’d Sing,†a tune with an old folky feel to it, a nice wrap up.
There are a ton of singer-songwriters out there, as there have always been. But Todd Warner Moore is one of the better ones.
