Terry Kitchen,
That's How It Used to Be
(Urban Campfire, 2004)

Terry Kitchen is a dedicated lifelong folksinger. Since young adulthood, he's written sensitive and straightforward songs that reveal his own life and make sense of the world in general. That's How It Used to Be is his seventh solo album.

Kitchen is a lyric-oriented songwriter who chooses interesting subjects and explores them almost as a short-story writer would. He has an eye for detail that many songwriters lack, which allows him to tackle historical subjects such as the 1791 discovery of coal in Pennsylvania, chronicled in the first song, "Mr. Ginder's Coal." "The boat's piled high with Pennsylvania anthracite/It's black and dirty but it burns clean and bright."

Another historical song, based on the Wright Brothers' accomplishment, is built on the excellent title "Bang Your Head Against the Sky." Unfortunately, the melody of this song (and others) doesn't live up to the promise of its rock anthem-worthy hook and the happy good humour of the next line, "...if you're gonna bang your head you might as well aim high." (It would be interesting to hear what Kitchen could do if, just once, he allowed himself to write like, say, Bono, instead of a very nice man playing a folk club.)

Kitchen plays guitars and stringed instruments on the album. He's joined by Larry Finn on drums and percussion, Alizon Lissance on keyboards, John McGann on mandolin, and several other musicians. The album has a simple straightforwardness to it, which is good, as well as a definite earnestness that is sometimes distracting.

The title track, for example, takes the perspective of people living on Earth after it becomes uninhabitable. "This whole planet was home/You could walk outside the dome." Now, this line is actually funny -- and could work very well in a song that took itself less seriously. Kitchen himself seems to want to lighten up a bit in the song "I'll Make It Right," which is a more upbeat tune that provides a nice change.

An injection of that kind of country-rock energy might give Terry Kitchen's songs more sparkle. In the meantime, That's How It Used to Be offers valuable perspective on the struggles and triumphs of regular folk.

by Joy McKay
Rambles.NET
24 September 2005

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