Canyons of My Mind is, as its title suggests, a landscape where the personal & the pastoral converge. Drawing inspiration from the biographies of literary figures like Charles Wright & Jim Harrison, Combs has created an album that explores the notion of sustainability in its many facets - artistic, economic, spiritual, environmental. "When I set out to record 'All These Dreams', I had a distinct vision of what I wanted the record to sound like. It was a cocktail of the Roy Orbison, Glen Campbell, Nilsson vibes that you can hear right there on the surface," Combs says. "Canyons is much more personal. It's a testament to my acceptance of who I am as a man & who I am becoming." The quiet struggles & satisfactions of carving out an identity in a world gone wrong are palpable throughout the album. Whether questing through the labyrinth of his own spiritual yearning, (Heart of Wonder), recreating a rail rider's full-body sensation of freedom beneath an azure Montana sky (Rose Colored Blues), imagining a near-future dystopia where the very idea of green spaces has been annihilated (Dirty Rain), or channeling the desire of a peeping Tom who has fallen in love with his sylvan quarry (Hazel), Combs refines the vulnerable vagabond persona he mastered on All These Dreams while pushing it beyond those boundaries, into a more pastoral realm aligned with artists like Nick Drake & Tim Buckley.
Highly Recommended
June 2017
