Like the mist which seasons the freeway of his cover image, the unobtrusive voice of Michael Lane drifts through the album with reflective grace. Even in ‘Stormy Weather’, he sees ‘sunset’ and ‘fire in your eyes’, while telling gentle tales through convincing second-person narratives with a feathery delivery and sunlit mood.
A buttermilk voice glides in leisurely strides across layers of sound; tripping in a tripling acoustic arpeggio that forms the canvas for the piece’s colours.
Synthesised effects propel a hum of city sophistication; while slick scratches of harmonica harness the softness of rural reeds which echo through Lane’s sentimentality.
Lane’s title track ‘Traveling Son’ prepares a lithe laneway through the excursion of his collection; while falsetto harmonies drizzled over the patting rhythms of ‘Worth It’ is worthy of attention. ‘Dusty photographs in the basement of Grandfather tells a story of my childhood long ago’ depicts Lane’s avenues of nostalgic explorations, and once navigated for its softness and calming flow, Traveling Son should mellowly meander into your mind.
4/5
Greywood Records
Reviewed by Renée N. Abbott
