Email this article
Beautiful
CD by Tim Guidotti
For a guy who's written over 1,200 songs in the last 20 years, putting together a CD of new material is more a labor of omission than compilation. Tim Guidotti makes music like most people make breakfast: every day without a lot of effort. Most of those breakfasts are nourishing but nothing fancy. This CD is a collection of his best recent Sunday brunches.
Beautiful is a departure from Guidotti's previous solo work. The music is bouncier, the lyrics are more light-hearted and less brooding than in some previous works. The cheerfulness may be due to Guidotti's recent success as a working musician. He can be seen playing in several venues in the Durango area on different nights of the week, often working up to 30 days out of the month.
"I'm one of those musicians that people don't have to seek out because I'm always playing somewhere," says Guidotti. "I was a little burnt out on managing and booking the bands I was in, so it's great to just go out, set up, and start playing."
Guidotti was a founding member of Durango jam band Earthone in 1995. After that band broke up in 1998, he started the popular smart-rock band Secret World, which had a successful two-year run in Durango's bar scene. He released a solo CD in 2001 entitled Spring & Motor Oil, a strong folk album with an almost bluegrass band instrumentation.
Beautiful is much more of a solo effort, showcasing Guidotti's talents as a singer/songwriter/guitarist. There is an appealing sparseness to the album, with just the right smattering of bass and percussion. The clarity of the sound highlights the strength of Guidotti's vocals. His singing is casual and funny, with occasional bouts of funk and soulfulness. His songs are witty without being cute, compelling stories of love, work, and the surprising wisdom that accompanies growing older.
Age is a recurring theme in this album, even though Guidotti is not yet 40 years old. "I remember growing up as a kid thinking that adults had it all together. Now that I'm older I realize we're all still basically kids walking into adulthood. It's just that now we've got some lines on our faces."
The song "Old Together," a duet featuring a cameo by bluegrass/jazz vocalist Molly O'Brien, is a story about the disconnect between the past of a picture and the currency of a mirror. "There was a time, not long ago," O'Brien sings, "when the pictures that hung on our wall were current like mirrors, now they're like museums. Our history hangs in our hall."
Molly O'Brien once said that the difference between a fiddle and a violin is that you don't spill beer on a violin. "Drunk Love" is a song you can spill beer on. It is a story about two young lovers Guidotti witnessed at a live show he played. "They were just sitting there for hours drinking Jaegermeister and Pinstripe. They would flirt a little bit and then they'd start kissing passionately. Then they'd have a fight and get back to their drinking. In a little bit they'd start in again with the flirting. Round and round it went. That song has become a real favorite in the bars."
"Have Mercy" is a fun romp of a traveling song, picking up hitchhikers, picking up señoritas, and meeting a dog worthy of being in a song: "Old stray dog, slumping in a ditch. I bet in your day you were one fine looking lady. Here's a biscuit and some water for your bones. Old stray dog get along and ramble on home."
"Eye Candy" is another true story about the unfortunate tendency of men to ogle beautiful young women. Only this time the singer gets caught doing it by his wife. "Oh she's hot, she's got a lot, but, baby, she's just eye candy... Now my lady will not talk to me."
"Song of the Spring" is a happy song with jazzy flavors that evokes the arrival of spring in several settings: cottonwoods drinking up the snowmelt in the canyons of Utah, a meadowlark on a fence post on the prairie of the Cheyenne, and the sunbathers in the parks of Santa Fe. Guidotti has lived on the Florida Mesa near Durango, where he gauges the arrival of spring by the first meadowlark singing, which is often within a few days of the year before.
The title track of the album is downright inspirational. "It's a beautiful morning and you are here right now. It's a beautiful life and you are here somehow." The music is soaring and lush, joyful in the simple pleasure and mystery of being alive. It is clear from this CD that Guidotti is a happy person. It is his great gift to be able to share that happiness with his listeners in a way that makes us happy too.
Todd Thompson follows the Four Corners music scene from Durango where his favorite pastime is naming, and getting to know, the bottoms of barstools.
Post a comment
www.insideoutsidemag.com doesn't necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post.
Read our full policy.