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Tim Gleeson has come back from the studio...
So Tim Gleeson has come back from the studio with a new release, eh? I’m worried…because I know this kind of guy: he steals hearts. No, not at cards: your sweetie. He’s a Pied Piper of sorts; that’s the harmonica he toots instead of a flute. And he plays the “Sensitive Guy” card with an acoustic guitar in his hand. This is the great-great-great…grandson of a troubadour in Ye Olde Days who would craft a love song wrapped in a sunny day with a smile on his face—and the fair maidens of the town would look at him with their eyelashes fluttering and their pulse racing. “Oh, he’s SO gentle and vulnerable!”
And not just adults either: I watched my little two-year-old-niece dancing to this when she thought I wasn’t looking. Children understand this kind of singer-poet; the television shows make these guys sit and serenade the youngest generation so that they understand compassion and that special kind of simple magic that comes from a balladeer. No wonder the town of Hamlin could not believe how special a man that piper would be. Don’t overlook his cleverness either with those fingers: piano, violin, and arrangements are under his direction too.
Maybe it’s that thin delicate voice. Lots of guys have parlayed that into success. Graham Nash has the British accent behind him as well as a harmonica—maybe that’s the trick. The late Dan Fogelberg was another who made us feel like he could sense every little nuance of emotion within the feelings we dared not share until safety had been reached. And now here’s Tim G., and he’s just as open with his intentions to charm his way into our lives. “Hard Times” are over, he says, and there’s something so familiar about this tune that makes me unable to identify why I feel so secure at his words. I could also instantly tell the snapping touch of Art Austin on percussion backing up the confidence that “No Sad Songs” will be found here. (I do have to gently remind Tim that the “Train that Never Comes” (from the Luck Brothers’ delightful Pain CD) will have a sense of regret and resignation that can’t be extinguished—but it’s the right way to end the 10-pack of songs.) See, Tim’s all about “Pure Love”: the trials and errors of innocence lost and found in “An Old Love.”

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