BY AUDRA SCHROEDER
Fond du Lac (Trampa)
Adam Ahrens' voice is instantly familiar, a molasses mixture of Bill Callahan and Leonard Cohen. That's apparent within the first three songs of his sophomore CD, a more layered, exotic affair than the former Wisconsinite's finger-picked debut. "Soldier's Pay" tells a Cohen story under jazzy horns (courtesy of Michael Ramos), and the delicate "Weaverfinch" strums and picks under a Callahan-esque drawl, deep and smoky as he sings a love song to a bird. Ahrens comes into his own on lullaby "It's Not Just Stars," organ-driven gospel ballad "Worthy Hands" with guest vocalist Dana Falconberry, and the waltz-speed "Second Hand Wings," which explodes under Ramos' cumbia horns. Fond du Lac's a welcoming mix of folk and blues, and he's a decent storyteller, but it feels like Ahrens is still reaching for something more, a worldly sound that's just starting to form.
The former Madison resident Adam Ahrens is coming home this month to celebrate the release of his first full-length album. The self-titled work may have been born in this current home of Austin Texas but it was conceived years ago, right here in Madison.
Influenced as a teenager buy seeing local favorite Catfish Stephenson perform on State Street, Ahrens cultivated his love of Americana music. "I found my way into roots music and finger style guitar pretty soon after that," he explains. "Lightning Hopkins, Blind Lemon Jefferson, those kinds of people. After I heard them I moved down to Texas to get closer to the place of origin." The Lone Star State proved to be the ideal classroom for Ahrens as he developed his craft. "There's such a wealth of guitar talent and independent artists that I found my way to the main players pretty quick," he says. "I was at church every week, so to speak."
After gaining valuable instruction from these players, including the man that he considers his mentor, Steve James, Ahrens started to think seriously about writing and recording his own songs. "exhausting all the influences and trying to find a voice of my own was my reasoning." He states. "There's just a sense that if you don't have anything of your own, then you haven't learned anything. At that point it seemed strictly like imitation until I had written some of my own material."
Adam Ahrens is a beautiful portfolio with which to debut his burgeoning talent. Original songs with lyrical content running the gamut from lonesome to hilarious, instrumentals seamlessly binding everything together, and a few covers for good measure, this album fuses the influences of contemporary times with soothing traditional music. Its creation, however, was not as smooth as the sound it conveys.
Speaking of his time in the studio, Ahrens says, "Sometimes it can really force you to go back to the drawing board. On this record I had a second day of retakes because we weren't really getting the sounds and they weren't sounding like I thought they should. So I went back and I recorded at least three of those songs over. It scared me, frankly. I really wasn't sure if I was going to come out with what I needed and studio time is a premium, so I don't like to waste my time when I'm in there,"
If he was worried about efficiency compromising quality, he needn't have been. All in all, the album was recoded in less that a week and produced a collection of staggeringly well-controlled, gentle songs. The best example of this can be found in the haunting last track, "Rose in the Snow". The juxtaposition of Ahrens' lullaby vocals with chiming bell-like banking guitar is immediately heart-breaking. The upbeat "Ramrod" sits on the other end of the emotional spectrum. If this song doesn't make you smile nothing will. Featuring the slide-guitar work of Steve James, this bouncy tune is proof that you don't have to be a worried man to sing a worried song after all.
Adam Ahrens makes his triumphant return to Madison on October 14th at the Weary Traveler at 9:00 p.m. and follows up with a second show at the Harmony Bar and Grill on the 15th with Steve James at 6:00 p.m.
Shelly Peckham, Rick's Café
October 2006 Volume 4 No. 10
