Mike McGuire - Bright Lights Of Vegas
  • Americana / Country / Folk
  • Location:
    AMERICA NORTH: USA:Kentucky (KY)
  • Record Label:
    Okolona
  • Website:
  • AirPlay Direct Link:
    AirPlayDirect.com/mikemcguire
  • Bright Lights Of Vegas
  • Roses For The Moon
  • Back To Bakersfield
  • I'd Like To Be The Man(My Dog Thinks I Am)
  • Starkville
  • I Don't Go Around(Feeling Sorry For Myself)
  • Secrets Of The Canyon(Acoustic)
  • Museum Of Memories
  • Springtime In The Highlands
  • california mudslide
  • Secrets Of The Canyon(Electric)
  • Too Early For Snow
  • Crazy Lone Star Blues
  • My Old Kentucky Home {Longfield Avenue}
  • The Streets Are Quiet On Christmas Day
Review:Beyond The Ark
McGuire then takes the passing military imagery of that song (“a young man serves his country, while the old man guards his home”) to its logical conclusion on the subsequent “Military Time.” As a young recruit begins his journey into the service in Iraq, learning hard lessons along the way, McGuire’s band echoes the lock-step conformity required of such sacrifice. Scott Kiper adds a crunchy lead guitar, amid a snapping rhythm, and Mike Schroeder takes over for a few well-placed frenetic runs on the mandolin.

“Roses for the Moon” moves back into the easy gait McGuire first established on Beyond the Ark, but this time he adds a flinty romanticism that recalls Warren Zevon. As Schroeder moves to fiddle, giving the track a dirt-road authenticity, McGuire pulls one of the laconic lyrical twists that made Zevon’s work so compelling: He travels all night to make a grand gesture to a girl, only to find himself arrested and alone.
Kiper matches McGuire lick for rueful lick on the subsequent Katrina-themed “Leaving New Orleans” which, instead of the expected happy-go-lucky Acadian stomp, returns to the sweeping portent of McGuire’s initial track. Dashing out ahead of the gathering hurricane-force winds, and amid a lugubrious signature from keyboardist David Taylor, the Crescent City quickly becomes nothing but a fading rearview speck. Just then, though, as McGuire surveys a truck filled to the point of tipping with all of his earthly belongings, he hedges a bit: “I’m leaving New Orleans … but I’ll be back … I hope!” He can’t, he won’t, give up.

On “The Streets are Quiet on Christmas Day,” McGuire offers a delicately wrought lament for the wider meaning of the holiday shared after the echoing excitement of tearing into presents has faded. Mike Cecil’s steel guitar then gives an old-time country feel to the closing “I Count the Days,” which finds McGuire studying hard to divine just how much longer he will be away from his true love. Even as he struggles with a forlorn mood, he can’t help but be aware of how common these feelings are, and he gains a sense of community in that shared longing. “In the morning,” he plaintively sings, “I’ll be waiting at the airport with all of the other people who are leaving.”

A glint of empathy, and of hope, shoots through even the quietest, saddest moments on Beyond the Ark, and that’s what makes it special.


Review by Nick DeRiso
Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)


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  • Members:
    Mike McGuire
  • Sounds Like:
    Folk,Rock,Country,Blues
  • Influences:
    Lucinda Williams, John Prine,Nick Drake,Randy Newman,JJ Cale,Kris Kristofferson, Elizabeth Cotten,Stephen Foster,Guy Clark,Townes Van Zandt,Bob Dylan,The Band,Johnny Cash,Neil Young,Tom Petty,The Byrds
  • AirPlay Direct Member Since:
    07/17/08
  • Profile Last Updated:
    01/14/21 19:23:16

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