Singer-songwriter Dan Chauvin has released his third CD, Small Town Life, and it is surely a personal glimpse into his old hometown. His lyrics are full of insightful reflection and each song is a heartfelt rendering of a personal tale.
Mandolin and fiddle, played by Troy Engle, weave a sweet rootsie tapestry in the title track that makes one think of a simpler time. Chauvin’s voice is beautiful against the backdrop of acoustic melody. He really knows how to construct the musical frame to hit the listener’s emotional bulls eye. Guest vocalist Susan Levine provides a lovely contrast with Chauvin’s smooth, tender male vocal. When Chauvin briefly holds a note, his reaches a soulful solitude.
On his tune “Absolutely Nowhere,” Chauvin’s voice resonates with sensitivity over his acoustic and Lori Diamond’s quite piano tinkling. Diamond’s voice works perfectly with his as she shadows him on his haunting chorus. Likewise, “Golden Red Horizon” tugs the ear with Chauvin’s earnest, sincere vocal gliding over an emotive violin and gentle acoustic guitar. He doesn’t just play the guitar. He coaxes different moods out of it, and he makes them fit his vocal approach like a glove. Guest vocalist Susan Levine lays out another layer of loveliness as Chauvin presents fond feelings he has found deep inside himself and brought forward with personal courage.
Chauvin and his other female co-vocalist, Lori Diamond, are a beautiful union on “Step Into The Light,” a lyrical piece about living with tremendous loss. As a songwriter, Chauvin weaves pedal steel, mandolin, and his own acoustic guitar and Don Hooper’s bass into a warm blanket of tender feeling and forlorn hope. Hooper does his job with such subtle touch you’d only miss him if he suddenly wasn’t there. Troy Engle’s mandolin and pedal steel take the song’s emotional state and magnifies it, stretching it out into other dimensions, like a song that reaches out to everybody, past and present. The listener, then, cannot help but to feel what Chauvin was feeling when he wrote it.
A perfect combination of piano, acoustic guitar, and layered vocals is found on Chauvin’s “Save Me.” Lori Diamond’s pretty voice lends itself well to filling the space around Chauvin’s handsome vocal. Each note here is perfect, subtle, and touching. “Never Go Back” finds Chauvin getting himself a country-fried edge and steady beat. This song comes fairly close to the territory of Merle and Wayland, and that vintage country works well with the huskier side of Chauvin’s vocal. This aggressive piece is another important shading on Small Town Life. This time, Chauvin is singing about leaving that life. His music makes you feel his courage and his gritty sense of adventure.
“Said And Done is an introspective, lyrical song sung with gentle ease inside a chamber of tone forged by sharp electric guitar and hypnotic percussion. Chauvin’s voice finds the perfect space inside the intricate musical passages. Troy Engle’s pedal steel rings out with true beauty over the haunting landscape of Don Hooper’s bass and synth string.
A professional hunter, Chauvin closes out this CD with an ode to his sport called “Duck Hunting.” He multi-tracked himself making duck calls and he uses the special effect at the beginning of the song. Not only does it sound like a flock of ducks, it makes you feel as if you’re on a lake in the morning. Of course, the song is about more than duck hunting. It is Chauvin’s tale of life in a once sacred rural place. Kristen Miller’s cello and Don Hooper’s synth violin create a perimeter of emotion around the heartfelt words rolling out of the singer-songwriter.
By the end of the CD Small Town Life, listeners will likely feel as if Chauvin has taken them on a walking tour of his old stomping grounds. They will also come away from the experience enriched by all he has shared.
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