BOB SUMNER : SOME PLACE TO REST EASY

BOB SUMNER : SOME PLACE TO REST EASY

Bridges
Motel Room
Don't We Though
You Can Stay Here
Forty Years On The Floor
Didn't We Dream
Turn You Into Stone
Baby I Know
Lonesome Sound
Familiar Feeling
Is It Really Any Wonder

Label : Fluff & Gravy Records / North Country Collective / Factor

Release Date : September 6, 2024

Length : 39:51

Review (Americana UK) : Bob Sumner’s 2019 debut album ‘Wasted Love Songs’ was a much-loved thing on this website. Described as a “thing of beauty” it covered the classic themes of love, loss, loneliness and being worn down by the world. It has taken a while, but Sumner has now followed that impressive debut with another lovingly crafted piece of Americana. ‘Some Place To Rest Easy’ is an album that leans heavily in the direction of country, but Sumner’s country is not one of pick-up trucks and beer runs. His is an interpretation of country that brings subtlety and understated musicianship, songs that touch on the loss of multiple loved ones to alcoholism. Losses that hold particular weight for Sumner, who left behind his own problematic path with drinking after a serious health diagnosis two years ago. It seems trite to state that ‘Someplace To Rest Easy’ does exactly what it says on the label but, it really does. Sumner’s is a voice born to sing country. Never forced or strained, his vocals add gravitas to any lyric. Strings sit alongside tasteful synth tracks; dobro and steel guitar bring out the country. It is a melding of eras, sounds, concepts, and stylings woven together to form an album that oozes warmth and feeling. Picking out highlights in an album that offers up no end of options is a thankless task. Perhaps better then to select two songs that offer up, as if in miniature, what the album is all about. At one end of the spectrum, we have an example of how Sumner can wring the emotion out of a ballad. ‘You Can Stay Here’ is a beautiful song, both in lyric and in delivery. Minimal piano accompaniment here allows those vocals to shine. In contrast ‘Lonesome Sound’ ups the tempo and takes the country twang to the max. But, and perhaps because this is music that emanates from Vancouver, Canada rather than the country conveyor belt that is Nashville, Tennessee, the song signifies how good country music can be when in the right hands. Even on ‘Motel Room’, a track highlighted a few weeks ago on these pages, the sad story of a friend’s descent into alcoholism is still delivered in an upbeat style that brings a bit of levity to a sad story told. Sumner’s is a nuanced approach to the sensitive topics he addresses on the album. Regardless of delivery style or tempo, if country is your preferred Americana leaning then ‘Someplace To Rest Easy’ will not disappoint.

Review (Americana Highways) : The first track is always the hook & Bob Sumner must know that as well. He starts with “Bridges,” & it’s a ballad…but an atmospheric, mood-enhancing ballad. His voice is tender with authority, the drums snap & the guitar & piano lay down some melodic notes & it simply introduces to unfamiliar ears the confidence & sweep of a fine artist. The lyrics are narrative in style & Sumner unfolds an intriguing tale. He’s a storyteller beyond his guitar & compositional skills. The 11 tunes that bring you to Some Place To Rest Easy (Drops Sept. 6/Fluff & Gravy Records/North Country Collective/39:51) include string arrangements by Erik P.H. Nielsen (bass/percussion/glockenspiel/mouth harp/bgv/acoustic guitar & baritone guitar) & Trent Freeman (fiddle/strings). The cover art is good, but it doesn’t depict the originality enrichments of Bob’s work. It’s laid-back pieces but they are not lame, simplistic, or sedate. The songs resonate with hip values, they have gravity & the acoustical virtuosity is sharp. I’m from New York but this has a levity that The Band, Little Feat has but with just a little more country feel for authenticity. This solid support of the strings on “Motel Room” is enlivened, but it’s not spare like a fiddle or two in a country song. It’s arranged & performed with string gusto almost at a classical level with its fortification. Sumner’s vocals are recorded with clarity & he certainly knows what lyrics are to be emphasized. “Don’t We Though” is a little retro in country-string elements but it’s a sincere tune with simplicity & performed meticulously. I guess, what I find attractive is that Bob is singing in a vintage manner, but he’s polished it up so much it almost sounds like a refreshing take on the country genre. Many songs sound like Jim Reeves, Johnny Horton, Buck Owens, or Sonny James could’ve covered them. It’s a rich vein of tradition just under the surface that gives the songs a salient distinction. “You Can Stay Here,” is a slow ballad with an ear-tugging quality. It sounds like if played live every patron would get quiet. Sumner’s songs are distilled of silliness, banality & vapid expressionism. There’s not a threadbare phrase. I’m expecting tunes to evaporate into something commercially sweet but then a melody like “Forty Years On the Floor” reinvigorates. Clever, beautiful & sung excellently. One of the best on the set. Highlights – “Bridges,” “Motel Room,” “Don’t We Though,” “You Can Stay Here,” “Forty Years On the Floor,” “Turn You Into Stone” & “Is It Really Any Wonder?” Musicians – Bob Sumner (vocals/acoustic guitar), Etienne Tremblay (lead guitar/baritone, acoustic & nylon string guitars/bgv), Leon Power (drums/congas/acoustic & rhythm guitars/bgv), Matt Kelly (pedal steel), Chris Gestrin (synths/piano/clavinet/organ/Moog), Paul Rigby (Telecaster/mandolin/guitar), John Reischman (mandolin), Scott Smith (dobro/harmonica) & Kendel Carson.

Review (Roots Music Canada) : Talking about traditional country music, Americana and folk makes Bob Sumner a little prickly. His problem isn’t with the music itself, of course, as his sophomore solo album, Some Place to Rest Easy, clearly shows that the Canadian singer-songwriter appreciates the finer points of steel guitar, fiddle, and strong storytelling. Rather, Bob takes issue with the idea that the only way to honour the genre’s greats is to play music exactly the way they did. Throughout Some Place to Rest Easy, countrypolitan strings are deployed with ambient sensibilities, while tasteful synth tracks live alongside dobro and steel guitar. The result is an album that takes as much inspiration from the audio production of Randy Travis as it does the lyrical soul of Big Thief’s Adrienne Lenker—a melding of eras, sounds, concepts, and stylings that’s informed by the past, but never bound by it. As Bob said, “All of my heroes, all the people that did it so well—whether it be George Jones or Willie, Waylon, whoever—they weren’t these museum pieces. They were always creating something new, something different.” Raised in White Rock B.C. near Vancouver, Bob comes by his all-inclusive musical approach honestly. His paternal grandfather was a working jazz guitarist, squeezing in gigs alongside his day job as a janitor. Bob’s mother grew up in a religious community, learning gospel songs and hymns by ear on piano. But it was his brother Brian, with whom he performed as the Sumner Brothers for more than two decades, who may have been his biggest influence. “My brother was obsessed with pushing boundaries,” Bob said, citing the duo’s eclectic musical catalogue as a master class in experimentation. Along the way, playing with his brother also led Bob to his own artistic sweet spot. “I have always been such a lover of ballads and sombre music. I’m just such a sap,” he said with a laugh. Those emotional sensibilities were front and centre on his 2019 solo debut, Wasted Love Songs—a conscious choice for Bob. “I wanted to make a record that you didn’t skip a song on, that could just expand on that sombre mood throughout,” he said. But on Some Place to Rest Easy, he picked up the tempo, balancing a more buoyant, lively feel with the stirring lyrical depth fans have come to expect. Songs like “Don’t We Though” explore how the same relationship can be both loving and tumultuous, with smooth instrumentals that underlay a more complicated lyrical landscape. “Forty Years on the Floor” and “Lonesome Sound” make ripe soundtracks for country drives. And three songs on the album—“Bridges,” “Motel Room,” and “Is It Really Any Wonder”—touch on the loss of multiple loved ones to alcoholism. These losses hold particular weight for Bob, who left behind his own problematic path with drinking after a serious health diagnosis two years ago. Perhaps that’s why his approach to the topic is so nuanced; neither apologetic nor demonizing, he casts light on the outsized pain and outsized impact those loved ones held while they were here. In the end, that’s what Bob’s music has always been about—more than a single sound, influence, instrumental, or clever line. “I always want people to feel something,” he explained. “If I heard that this album helped somebody that was feeling down, even just by feeling some other emotion for a little while, that’s the number one thing for me.”

Review (Twangville) : Everyone has their demons. There are many people who have turned those demons into musical artistry. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always mean the story ends well. For British Columbian Bob Sumner, it seems like maybe it will. A genetic heart disease diagnosis became the catalyst for him to overcome alcoholism and turn his energy more toward his music and celebrating every new day. Sadly, some of his co-travelers on the darker part of the journey didn’t make it. They became the inspiration for several songs and the title of his new album, Someplace To Rest Easy. The CD begins with Bridges. It’s one of the songs written for a now-lost friend, and as the piece builds to the end you can hear the fervent hope that “maybe the bridges you burn might light your way back home.” Next up is Motel Room. With its dobro, fiddle, and steel guitar highlights this is a fine, twangy, country song. “Now ya got your 2.6 of bourbon and your party of one” is a reminder that while things might have started as a fun excursion, the harsh reality of the disease is anything but a good time. The record finishes with Is It Really Any Wonder. It’s basically a folk song, but with some surprising synth parts that uplift what is otherwise a story of drinking to dull the pain and shut out the world. Sumner is clearly an aficionado of the glory days of Nashville’s countrypolitan sound. Baby I Know is a Charlie Rich-smooth waltz where a lonesome harmonica provides a counterpoint to the majestic strings and hope that love will overcome all the mean bits that life throws at you. Don’t We Though has a similar arrangement. Lonesome Sound is the most uptempo tune on the track list. Classic strings and pedal steel duel it out to portray the notion that there’s nothing more lonesome than the sound of a city at night. The sonic outlier on the album is Forty Years on the Floor. It has a serious groove like having the top down on a sunny day and no particular place you have to be. It takes a deft hand to put out a good, sad record. Go a little too far in one direction and it borders on the tragic. A little excess in the other way and it’s a self-pitying, woe-is-me tale no one wants to hear. But if you nail it, it’s a crying-in-your-beer sound to make Hank Williams or George Jones fans question their allegiance. Bob Sumner nails it on Someplace To Rest Easy.