 |
| Singer Songwriter Slackwire Honesty |
| band: Kitt, Thomas |
| Album: Kitt Happens |
| |
 |
| |
"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction." ~ Albert Einstein
"For the words of truth are simple" ~ Aeschylus
A singer songwriter with a guitar has a burden that can break a man. Don't make you feel something, he don't matter. Like a standup comedian, failure would be so lonely. It's a slack rope walk not for the timid. Easier to find a band play it loud. Poetry and a guitar, inspired banjo maybe, and lotsa' choices that won't bowl anybody over, just words and music, the heart and the song actually matter. Thomas knows what he's after: "I've a load of influences, I like to think of my songs as very honest songs, I find it impossible to lie in a song, bad lyrics wreck my head, I'd rather hear a simple lyric or none at all than someone trying to be smart but sounding like a Donkey."
Thomas Kitt of Dublin makes his music from little words, an honest voice, and heart without the hype. He posts a bunch of black and whites in his pics. It's hard to write a song that matters. It's more than words. A little hocus pocus could fill the coffers, but wouldn't matter in the long run. The guitar reminds me of the great days of folk when Dylan sang acoustic, and Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton, Tom Rush and all the rest sang songs that mattered when the music biz was about the songs. This night in my life, Thomas Kitt is the tonic—a high wire act in the circus of the soul.
Listen carefully, there's work been done this album. A first CD. Simple stuff. Words and music. Just a guitar and a wonderful picking technique. When Kitt sings, "It hurts inside… Gotta keep on playin'… Gotta' keep on winning… Or die trying," he wins the day. This simple album and that song were enough to compel an artist friend on first listening to post the song, write an email, and make a comment. Kitt's warmth and honesty in his voice are compelling, his picked guitar is just right, and his songs tell a story sad and deep as any life could hope for.
THE SONGS:
DIE TRYING Life of the artist maybe this simple song. Phrases strung like disparate beads in a chain. "Talking is cheap and it's a pack of lies." Banjo plucks repeating, makes you want it to last. "It hurts inside… Gotta keep on playin'… Gotta' keep on winning… Or die trying." A little slide strikes the right tone. A guitar masked backward. Then the astonishing repeated phrase: "She won't wait for me. And she won't wait for me. And she won't wait for me." Don't know exactly what it all means. Means what I feel right now. It hurts inside but there's hope in the trying.
"RUN AWAY WITH ME, I won't cause you misery. We can be wild and free…" It's the end of winter and Thomas sings across the stream his invitation. "No one really wants to end up lonely." The words are compelling and build right through. Maybe this request is given from too much distance to be taken. "Blue skies surprise your eyes I'm dreamin'. No look, no touch, no plans, no scheming."
THE GIRL WITH THE WHISPERED NAME is the song of "25 hours and four airplanes just to meet a girl." Standing in the rain "trying to figure the perfect line." All that traveling and sacrifice may not pay off. "You better run boy she's gonna cause you pain." Maybe the joy was in the journey. "[H]er heart barely makes a sound."
CHERRY BLOSSOM GIRL is about the girl who is a rainbow and a cherry blossom girl, and even in the joy the potential of loss. "If you love someone you don't want to say goodbye." There's something so right about this love song contemplating loss. "The tears they roll down my face as I stand, as my dearest dearest friend says goodbye to his old man. Cause he taught him how to fix his bike and to swing a golf club, as he stands their reminiscing, you know I've never seen so much love." Magic of loss. "In the twinkling of a new star there's a Dad that is so proud. And I see a rainbow, my baby…"
AFTERNOON (ED'S NO. 9) is quiet drinking song taking the afternoon off for a beer with a friend. "And days and months and years go by. Can't understand why some people die. So I strike a deal for the ones I love as I look up at the sky above, and you can spoil my party and break my big balloon, but don't spoil my favorite time of all the time, it's my afternoon. It's my afternoon."
HEY JO JO "There's a sign on the road and I can never tell if it says 'This way to heaven' or it says 'This way to hell.'" Coming home to Jo Jo, the songs asks forgiveness for "what I'm unlikely to do." The quiet drone of an organ gives this song a timeless feeling.
THE DAY THE DEVIL CAME FOR TEA is a story song with a little of the Old West in it. The devil really does come to tea in this song. "Oh Lord, so much temptation, you know you're not safe anywhere, it's every nation. Here comes the greatest temptation and the devil on my shoulder is so persuasive. Let me go!"
I DON'T MIND THE RAIN has some brushes on the drumkit and a faster pace, and that great banjo that is always welcome on this record. "Don't control your feeling, you'll look like a mercenary. Trying to find the clever way to go. Just balancing up the books, looking for profitability, forgetting about the heart, the beats the flow." Thomas asks the anger to go away, and come back "if I need you again someday." This is a mission statement sounds like. "That's why baby I don't mind the rain, sometimes it feels good to feel sad."
THE WRONG GIRL makes your "head spin around." She's the wrong girl "from the wrong town." "What am I going to do with the 25 songs I wrote about her smile?" The relationship lasted a year. "She told me that she loved me but did not love me enough." This song has the simplicity of a Hank Williams song. "I'm not a man full of anger, just want to get drunk and into a fight. Why didn't you tell me it was the wrong girl, when I kissed a girl that night?"
TREAT ME SO UNKIND is a fast talking sweet song with some hand held percussion to spice it up just right. "I love you baby not because you are so pretty, oh. I love you baby 'cause you treat me so unkind. I love the pain the hurt the sorrow without the pity, oh. I love you baby in the morning time." Thomas probably won't get far singing this song to a girl at a concert. Too honest. Simple fact is he "might get bored." Don't try that line. Don't do nothing anybody wants done. Good song, though. "Might start crying… Whoo!"
I AIN'T COMING HOME TONIGHT sounds like it was written broke after a poker game, drunk and after a fight. "You know the blood on your guitar ain't the same on your knuckle after you been in a fight. If you saw me now you'd probably get an awful fright, and that's why, baby, I ain't coming home tonight." Messed up night no question, but a good song came out of it. "There ain't nothing more unattractive than a man's that's insecure. You not a man with confidence just in case you want to hold him tight, and that's why baby I ain't coming home tonight."
WHEN IT'S OVER IT AIN'T OVER talks fast with lines that sing right from the page. "I don't mind sitting in the freezing cold with the goose bumps on my arm, waiting for the girl I love to come and brake my heart. To kiss you only once a year I could meet you in the cloud, while the rest of the selfish world get torn apart." There's love and loss in most of Thomas Kitt. His mind turns to his father hoping he looks down from above, and to the girl to come back. "I hope that when it's over it's not over. When I'm done, I'm not done."
CLICK TO VISIT THOMAS KITT'S MYSPACE PAGE
|
| |
|
|
|
| [ home ] [ reviews ] [ blogs ] [ quotes ] [ shop ] [ contact ] |
| Copyright © 2006-2010 Billys Bunker |
|
|