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theavengingmusicjournalist · 7 years

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A Review: The Letter of Cranston Dean’s High Beams

An open love letter to the open roads that carry local Jersey Shore musician Cranston Dean to the venues of his life’s passion—an open love letter to his country and the people he loves, High Beams is an honest and empathetic music release.

The cover art by Amy Addison, alone, synthesizes some of what we should expect: A bitten crab apple, fallen to rot on the all patriotic bunting American flag. The bitter fruit lay atop the flag expressing said patriotism and a sense of the bitterness our country has encountered as according to Dean. Amongst the bunting flag we have what looks like an older story book, initials carved into the spine. Maybe a story book about a sailor or maybe that of folks tales, which expresses literature of this record, also holding Dean’s guitar pick on its face. Ever more, between that of the green literature and a little red book, which reads across the spine Taylor and neighboring it reads, pork roll as if a guide to New Jersey culture, lies papers. The papers, maybe a letter, that reads, In loving memory of Alexander Joseph H… The last name of Alexander Joseph hidden beneath the shadow of a skull, which is a reminder of the existential thought Dean has cultivated about the unavoidable death after life throughout this record. Never to forget, this is Dean’s fourth music release as the number four reads on that little red book. Through and through, these items are highlighted upon this black background, which surely encourages that these items are the body of his letter—In loving memory of Alexander Joseph H… maybe this one’s for you.

The record opens with the beginning of our letter, “Cross On The Highway”. A title that defines life on the highway as a religion for Dean’s life journey—that religion, the highway, powered with Rick Rein on Trumpet, is a staple of his gypsying art allowing his mind to roam toward clarity. “Cross On The Highway” captures life in the cycle of coping—the more I live the less I learn just lost on the highway—where the musician seems to say he is off to figure it out. That he will write it all down for his world once he returns from where he’s gone, his other home of the Jersey Shore.

Encompassed with a broad range of featured musical talents, High Beams is engrossed in many diverse arrangements that trail the emotions of this letter to their empathy. Riley Schiro, on electric guitar, revs the engine to the car Dean starts within “Cross On The Highway,” and begins to drive in, in track two, “Push”. With Schiro in the passenger seat and Dave Hayes in the back seat on the pedal steel, Dean moves on to reignite his love of the road, taking it wherever the music might take him. And surely, it does—he takes off.

Out of gas, Dean is only left with his nifty acoustic guitar, track 3 “I Want You,” playing pieces of his heart as though singing to his loved ones, hoping they can hear him as he reflects on memories, and what he has in his life. He sings, I start staring at a map; it’s time to feel alone; there is a space and time between the lines of the black top and I just feel at home. Honestly, you could strip this record of the featured accompaniments and you would find that Dean all himself, his vocals and his guitar, would wrap around your attention and pull you in just as close. Listening to “I Want You,” the rasp of Dean’s voice and the twang of his guitar give a flavor profile you cannot refuse.

Nevertheless, as masterful as Remy in Ratatouille, Dean cooks up accompaniments that exercise so many different genres and feelings at once. Dean on acoustic guitar alongside, Nicole Scorzone on violin, opens the story of “Fog On The Bay”’s perfect storm. As though the road came to an end as water encroached on the journey, Dean has no way to reach his lover on the other side. The storm coming in close to tear apart the land and take all it knows—maybe all Dean knows—away. The back and forth of Scorzone’s violin to Dean’s heavy guitar, makes for dramatic story telling until the moment Scorzone’s fades out into the shakes and shivers of Dean’s guitar, his twinkling piano, Frank Rein on Trombone and Zach Jone’s thumping drumbeat in track 5, “I’ve Got The Shakes”.

Dean continues to pay the tolls of the highway with love and thoughtful lyrics throughout High Beams, questioning the life and vitality of our country and wars. In “Can’t Speak Them All” Dean speaks to the imperfections of our country: I am an evil man, I am an evil man, just look at my skin; judges gavel quickly falls; stipend lives like live stock now; smoke and mirrors, the illusion; American Justice defies us now.

Sometimes jumping from entries of heroic passage such as in “Brother, Oh Brother,” accented by the sweet whining of the pedal steel guitar, played by Hayes, to “Crab Apple Tree,” where Dean seems to be injected with the tart taste of a crab apple as he objectionably works everyday of his mortal life (unlike our uplifted traveler in “Cross On The Highway”) but to see her again he will never. And when you think you’ve been surprised enough, Rein on Trumpet, raises the bitterness of “Crab Apple Tree” to the sweetness of “Ahmen, Ah Ahmen”. The storm on the bay clears up, and Dean drives on, only until the incredible catchy “November Rain” speeds him up. Rein’s Trombone drives the rock n’roll blend of Schiro, Hayes, accompanying the jazzy spell of Jone’s drums.

High Beams closes in on the hope of the future from that of the past, what life has to bring as well as what it can make us fear. It is easy to appreciate Dean for his varying talent to make his music sound like a mystifying fantastical tale to a singer-songwriter as brazen as Sara Bareilles and John Mayer to a reminiscent reflection of Bob Dylan singing “The Times They Are A Changin’” in 1964.

Dean shamelessly unravels the truth of his experiences with music, multiple instrument accompaniments and his raspy vocals that hug the lyrical building blocks of his exceptional story telling throughout this letter.

Upon the start of this letter, Dean was born, readying himself for his adventure for clarity but has since grown. He returns a human of new knowledge, of new sounds, of new love, and memories. He returns from where he has left by the end of this record, eventually parking his car in his driveway, sealing the envelope of his open love letter, signing it, High Beams.

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scentedbouquetlight-world-blog · 7 years

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