Lenny Solomon’s fourth CD Under My Hat reflects the ability of a seasoned singer-songwriter. Solomon has been at this business of words, emotions, stories, and music for a good four decades. His experience shows in how he delivers each song with no more and no less than what each needs. And in the case of Lenny Solomon, each song still has a lot going on inside of it.
Solomon opens his new album with “The Morning Song,” a chirpy offering with Solomon’s crisp rasp crooning freely over his nuanced acoustic guitar. His harmonica is another layer of acoustic joy, but it’s the heartfelt ode to the beginning of a day that makes you feel the man behind the music, someone who starts his day with plenty of pluck and likely finishes it with as much.
“Ode To Robert Frost” finds Solomon praising, in earnest, take-his-time vocalizing, his favorite American poet. The singer-songwriter is focused on Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” as a starting point to sing about choices people make in life. It’s a thoughtful contemplation. His earnest, heartfelt vocal application and his singly picked series of acoustic guitar notes should hit home with any New England-based Robert Frost reader.
Solomon makes an aggressive presentation with “Dog Eat Dog,” a harmonica dervish, electric guitar maelstrom number in which the singer-songwriter ups the ante by singing about the rugged individual who get eaten up by unexpected trouble. The dramatic tension in this song might make one picture self-defense against a mugger or chasing a purse snatcher before he gets out of sight. Dom Barry’s upright bass keeps the pace while electric guitarist Matt Cadarette wields a mean axe. Their notes wrap Solomon’s words inside something powerful.
“Test Of Time” offers more of Solomon’s earnest, heartfelt message, conveyed with his hearty vocal and nimble acoustic guitar work. Eric Kilburn’s brittle mandolin notes add another layer of tenderness here. While Solomon sings of passing the test of time, Kilburn keeps a steady rush of quick, crisp, and sweep notes darting forward, making one feel time moving on.
“Del’s Song” is a down tempo number lush with emotive vocalizing. Solomon’s voice is a thick weave of feeling and reflection. He wrings the emotional content of his message with his handsome husky timbre. The listener can feel a page turning in each verse and the electric guitar whistling over the range in the backdrop becomes a meaningful soundtrack for what goes on here.
“The Teacher” offers more lush harmonica grist and tender mandolin melody. Solomon keeps this one moving forward with his slightly up-tempo vocal delivery. He gives the lyrics lift with his brisk clip while the instruments beneath his voice run like a gentle, shiny stream in the wilderness. There’s a unique roots, folkie charm in this one, with Solomon keeping it afloat and moving swiftly along.
Solomon cruises fearlessly into social commentary about mid way through his album. “The Prisoner & The Jailer” points out how the jailer is equally imprisoned by his job. This song makes the listener feel that occasional, stifling nature of life. Everyone is paying penance of some kind and nobody gets free until both, or all, are free. The whistling harmonica notes, the tender acoustic notes, and the warm vocal make this a song of understanding, not condemnation.
“The Fracking Song” goes deeper into social issues by making levity of the new modern method of oil drilling. Solomon sings of finding natural gas in his kitchen faucet and in his neighbor’s too. Solomon delivers the wit with a chirpy delivery that belies that natural disaster taking place in his kitchen, wondering, to himself and to us, if it’s the end of days.
“Cat In The Hat” is marked by bluesy electric guitar and a catchy chorus. More about a human “tom cat” than about children’s story, the title character suffers the fate of all who mess around in another cat’s playpen. Solomon delivers the witty tale in a drawling, deadpan manner that serves the story well while finding a perfect home next to Matt Cadarette’s electric guitar picking style.
“Jane And Hal” moves to an almost island beat. Listeners can hear a faux Caribbean melody in the sharp mandolin notes. It’s a nice addition to the serious songs on either side of it when Solomon sings of a sneaky friend who robs him blind while a disloyal woman switches up. The playful melodies from mandolin, harmonica, and guitar make one wish this could have a more happy ending.
“The Awakening” is a wide, rangy, down tempo number that feels spread out and lifted. Solomon sings this one in a gentle, mellow vocal climb. Each verse feels like he’s taking us up higher, with an aerial view of all that happens to the world in springtime. This song could likely end up a spring time favorite for anybody who discovers it. Solomon’s lilting harmonica melody feels as natural as the great outdoors, and it contributes to the overall lifted feeling of the song. His delivery is heartfelt enough to make you believe he really feels this way and to inspire the listener to “hear the Robin’s song.”
That aptly titled “501(C)4” is about corporate greed and influence, endorsed, of course by the current right wing Supreme Court. It’s a protest song that hearkens back to the dry wit of Woodie Guthrie. Loaded with witty zingers about greed, this number makes clear how Solomon feels about greed at the higher levels of the corporate and the political world. Despite Solomon’s warm, avuncular delivery, it’s a very scary reminder of how much our lives will be controlled by this kind of influence buying.
“Laid-Off In Autumn” is another harmonica laced social commentary with witty observation. About an able man who loses his job in the auto industry, Solomon makes you feel the solemn loneliness of a man who doesn’t have a job to go to. His lonesome harmonica melody brings it home. He brings up some others who also lose their job when money runs dry. It’s uncanny how Solomon balances the sadness of peoples’ lives while keeping the song listenable, enjoyable, hummable.
“Woman In The Red Dress” has a bit of a bounce in its acoustic guitar strum. Solomon tells a tale of a woman who loves a man for his poetry. Intentionally vague, the song is loaded with images of the woman following his words at readings, finding in them something of her own memories. This is a deep lyrical work by Solomon, letting images from world travel speak for themselves. His smooth, impassive delivery lets the words come alive and tell the story for him, with all of their colorful locations and all of the bright invocations that come from the poet’s words.
Closing out with “Soldier Coming Home,” Solomon, by focusing on one soldier’s story, leaves the listener with his insights into all struggling veterans, once they’re back home, living with reminders of their traumatic experiences. Calling for compassionate insight, Solomon makes plain his concern for the downtrodden. He also delivers it with emotion in his dry, smooth vocal delivery, understated acoustic guitar melody, and a forlorn harmonica line.
A singer-songwriter doesn’t get this good without traveling around the block a few times. Solomon has been at this for 40 years. Under My Hat shows his tremendous growth as an artist with a message to share and some stories to tell. Along with upright bass player Don Barry, guitarist Matt Cadarette, and mandolin player /co-producer/engineer Eric Kilburn, Solomon has come up with a meaningful album that’s a joy to listen to while following stories that were not always a joy to live through.
