Record Review: Aaron Samuels - One Life is Not Enough

I first met Aaron Samuels at the world renowned open mic Wednesdays at Ploughman, hosted by the legendary Rob Leib and tended to by Derrick, my friend, fellow idiot, and bartender to the stars.

Aaron typically plays a 12 string guitar, though not always. At first blush, he seems like a deeply earnest man, and he is… but having come to know him, his humor and wit comes through both in his company and his playing.

He’s precise and clean in his playing, tackling complex covers from Fleetwood mac, Jim Croce, etc, as well has his originals, which he crafts with a pervading knowledge of music and it’s applications.

What strikes you about Aaron when you see him play is just that; his craftsmanship. He plays his guitar like some people use a pen or brush. It’s the tool of his art and he takes what he’s doing seriously while also entertaining you as you consume it. There is a dignity and craftsmanship in the way he plays that something to see.

There are people who pick up an instrument late in their lives and practice diligently, either with an instructor or on their own…they often have a few favorite songs and all they want to do is be able to play them on their couch or out in their neighbors back yard and that’s it. And from that simple approach comes a lot of very entertaining and talented musicians who sometimes even go on to start writing music and playing out and become wonderful gigging musicians. You run into them every day. Your co workers,  brother in law, they guy who details your car… hand them a strat and – holy shit, where did that come from?

This is a great phenomenon and never stops inspiring me. If you came into open mic one night and caught Aaron, you might think this is what you were seeing. It’s not. As inspiring and great as that would be, Aaron is a pro and has likely forgotten more about music just this morning with his coffee than you and I know. And you hear ALL of that when he’s gigging, and even more so in his latest Guernsey Beat recording, “One Life is Not Enough” . I’ve been lucky enough to talk a little music with Aaron, so I know for a fact that I’m a punter in this area compared to him, but even before the conversations that proved my inadequacy, I already knew it just by listening to him play.

That said, my shortcomings notwithstanding, I’m going to write about Aarons new album. You can come down to Ploughmans on a Wednesday, by Aaron a cider, and have him tell you all about what I got wrong. I’m sure if Matt Morris is there, he’ll have a few other things to add as well.

Don’t even get Derrick started.

So having been furnished with Aaron’s new recording from the powers of Guernsey, I sat down on my couch with my vicious death hound. He was snoring and taking up 2/3 of the couch, so I wedged myself in, popped my white Beats headset on, to see what Aaron had been up to.

Before I get into that, though, I have to point out the cover art… it’s a picture of Jessie, Aaron’s lovely bride. I’ve been lucky enough to meet her, as she sometimes comes into the open mic and sings a few songs with Aaron when she’s not on grandchild duty at home. She’s a wonderful singer, and incredible lady, and while I’m told the cover pic is not extremely recent, she’s no less lovely today than she is on the album. Again, come down on Wednesday night for yourself.

First song is called “Already Tired”, and I’m thinking to myself, yeah brother, I hear that. My first thought is this is the first time I’ve heard Aaron playing with a band…normally it’s just him in his live gigs. Aaron’s tenor seems more open and rangy than it does live, testament to Rob’s recording… there’s a lovely piano piece and some harmonies going with Aaron’s holy guitar. Reminds me of old 60s/70s rock…buffalo springfield comes to mind. Grant woke up from his nap to disagree (everyone’s a critic), says more Jefferson airplane. Fine, then.

Next up is “Two Edged Blade”, which is aaron’s usual complex melody with the addition of a mandolin which adds an interesting counterpoint to his voice and the calm it’s a folky, almost medieval, Renn faire vibe, but it swings because of the interesting complexity of Aaron’s guitar.

“Loneliness Doesn’t Bother Me” is another very interesting melody  Reminds me of some of the rolling, almost theatrical rhythms that the Stones used in their “She’s like a rainbow” era, before Ry Cooder showed Keith that Open G was cool.  Aaron’s riffs pull you in, the precise detail on the guitar makes you keep listening, and his voice makes you want to sip on a porter and smoke a cigar (both of which I may or may not be doing as we speak). Also love the lyrics for this one.

Before I go on to the next song, I want to say that listening to this album has brought to light what I had already suspected… Aaron isn’t just a prolific and immensely skilled guitarist with a “darth vader as a good guy” singing voice, he’s also an astute and creative artist who knows how to use the resources of recording and having a full band with harmony singers and a rhythm section.  Also, the folks at Guernsey Beat are no joke. And by folks, I mostly mean Rob. Buy him a cider and ask him what I got wrong as well.

Ok, Grants been fed and walked and I’ve retrieved the TV remote that my cat ran off with. Now listening to “Those Days”, which reminds me a lot of something Simon and Garfunkel would have done, if they had Stephen Stills sit in on his Martin.

Then up “Sweet Liberty”, this is an engaging story song. It has some tremendous Harmonica which I’m going to go ahead and guess is the Mighty Cuz and some gorgeous picking to go with a bopping song with lyrics that remind of my late-time Harry Chapin songs (yes, I know no one reading this except Slusser knows what I mean by that, but come down on Wednesday night, buy HIM a Ginger Beer, and he’ll tell you what I have wrong). This is a swinging song that I had to listen to twice. My favorite so far. Grant prefers “loneliness doesn’t bother me” but mostly just because of the line where he says “loneliness does bother me, it’s better than being with you”. Basset Hounds rarely chuckle, but he dug that.

“Juliette” reminds me a bit of David Crosby’s “Guinnevere”, except on a guitar rather than piano…but it’s that overarching Ode song with a gorgeous melody and very engaging embellishments where Aaron can flex a little on the 12 string, while singing with a little bit of a Leonard Cohen growl.

Speaking of  Leonard, the next song, “Was it Good for You” is one I’ve actually seem Aaron do live several times, and it’s definitely Cohenesqe in wit and tone, but hearing it with a band and the clarity of the recording, I realize it’s a much more crafted and deep song than I thought. The rhythm section has the swinging, tight Motown thing going while Aaron does his thing on his guitar and growls out the title line. Excellent.

The next song, “Shooter”, I’ve also heard him do a few times but this version is so clean and complex, I almost didn’t recognize it. The guitar part reminds me a lot of whatKeith Richards did with “Love in Vain”, which was a relatively simple Robert Johnson blues standard. Richards essentially recomposes it into a rolling melody that I can listen to over and over. I assume this is an original of Aaron’s from the start, but musically, it’s similarly engaging and … well … Keith, you know I love ya man…but Aarons playing is so tight and precise, it’s like he ate a metronome!

“More than Life” is a towering love song that has that bluesy,  folky, rolling thing the Byrds were doing, but lyrics and guitar complexity like Jim Croce.

“Jessie” makes me smile. It’s a tremendous example of the Singer/songwriter writing about his girl theme, and Aaron brings it off like a pro who’s in love and has something to say about it. Worth listening to the album just for this song. If you hear it, come down to Open mic and find jessie… well, you get the idea.

After this one, I took a break and came back, lit another cigar lamenting the troubled state of my deck, and it was “Ruby Tuesday”. Now, I probably listen to about 20-30 hours of music a week, live and otherwise. I’ve heard a LOT of Stones covers… so I confess when I saw this listed, I thought…”well, ok.. I guess we’ll see what this is about”.  It’s Aaron Samuels taking that classic song and doing it for himself. I have nothing but respect and admiration for it. He’s not mimicking the Stones, nor did he just learn the chords and push on through it. He clearly lived with it, worked out his own version of the melody and it’s his own. Very well done and a welcome treat.

(Side note here: once or twice I’ve mentioned Matt Morris in these reviews, and occasionally may have said a thing or two that some may have construed as smartass… you make take that for what it’s worth and draw your own conclusions. But, given that, it’s only fair for me to point out that Matt absolutely kills his version of Jumping Jack Flash when he plays it and --- oh, Lordy, believe me --- I wouldn’t say that it I didn’t mean it).

Back to our boy… Aaron’s next up is “Morning’s Child”. Now, I’m not entirely clear on which of these songs are actual originals, and which are not…will update once I can collect more on that, but I will say that the lyrics here are quite brilliant, and, man, I could listen to the guitar tracks on these songs alone all day. Aarons playing and Rob’s recording are on point.

Stay with me, three to go. “Miracle Man” comes back around to some of the earlier 70s folk type of things…some of these recordings are stripped down to Aaron’s guitar alone, or just him with a rhythm section, and I notice his voice changes in a subtle way when he’s playing with a full band. When it’s just him and his guitar, he adds more of a somber rolling folk tone, whereas he opens up and gives you more of a Paul Rogers rocker growl when he’s going drummer and bass, etc. Neither is better or worse, just something to notice. Very versatile use of his instrument, other than guitar.

“Poison Woman” brings to mind Warren Zevon in the way “Was it good for You?” made me think of Leonard. Warren wrote songs very differently on piano than he did on guitar. I presume this song was written on guitar, but it’s tone actually has more of the Warren Piano style. An example of the difference is “Roland the Thomspon Gunner” (Piano), versus “Rottweiler Blues” (guitar). Go, check it out. Tell me I’m wrong. “Poison Woman” reminds me of Roland-style Warren, even though I presume Aaron wrote it on a guitar (assuming he wrote it).

And we wrap up with “Wasteland” which has a nice open melody and a guy with some cymbals who is really working something out for a minute there. Then someone comes in with an electric guitar. This strikes me as something Joe Walsh was unable to do with the Eagles, though he wanted to.  Final Favorite is a tie between this one and Sweet Liberty. Grant has switched to “Poison Woman”.

I’ve already said a lot here; this is pretty long. Hell, I’ve used at least 3 semicolons already! But I will be listening to this more and will listen to other things that I feel are referenced here. It’s that engaging. Luckily, Aaron is also my friend, so I will be able to ask him things, and I will (most notable which are originals)…and even if he (likely) thinks I’m full of crap with my assessments, he’s probably fill me in anyway.

This is an example of the incredible talent rolling through the Ploughman Open Mic, and the professionalism of Guernsey Beat Records. I look forward to more recordings and to hearing and learning more from Aaron.

Come down on Wednesday night. You won’t be sorry. Ask them when they’re going to bring back the Yardbird on the drink menu.

Aaron’s album is gettable on Guernseybeat.bandcamp.com right now, and will be launching on the usual suspects shortly if it’s not up already. The CD is also on it’s way. I don’t know about vinyl. Ask him when you see him.