Is it a cliche when modern rockers “get back to their roots” and make an acoustic album? Kind of. But, hey, we all gotta stay sane, somehow. The high energy of our youth gets a little dark and the things that used to inspire morph into the things that weigh us down. So, whether one is a modern rocker, disco dancer, hair stylist, flight attendant, teacher, preacher, or shoemaker, we all “get back to our roots” at some point. For songwriters this process is fraught with creative peril. There is a potential loss of identity, a disconnect between the songwriter and the delivery, and if some grand life changing experience like birth or death inspires this return to the basics, there is the very real threat of sappiness and overused metaphors.
Fortunately Chicago native, Kevin Presby is a good enough songwriter to avoid most of these pitfalls on his debut solo album Dust Unto Dust. Barnstorming his way through the interior of the vast expanse that is the United States with Painkiller Hotel, Presby’s rock band, was suitable for a time, yet Presby admits that “maintaining your sanity and a rock band don’t really go hand in hand.” A desire to scale back the energy drove Presby to get back into the studio with an acoustic guitar, the death of his father led to the introspective and articulate songs of Dust Unto Dust.
While the impetus for creating this new delivery was the untimely death of his father, the album is surprisingly light hearted. Dust Unto Dust comes off as more of a celebration than a dirge. The strumming is upbeat, the song keys are, for the most part, major, and the lyrics are barely reminiscent–instead they’re matter of fact: stating the obvious, that the world lost another good man, and hoping that his father is in a better place, doing what he loves. Additionally, the production is world class. The talents of Ryan Hadlock go to work on Dust Unto Dust exquisitely balancing Presby’s throaty tenor vocals, and enlivening songs of loss into something danceable–no easy task.
Getting back to one’s roots may be a bit cliched, but how exhausting would life be if we never revisited the foundations of our inspiration? For Kevin Presby that inspiration was the acoustic driven records of his father’s youth, and the advice of experience: “do what makes you happy and do it as much as you can.” Dust Unto Dust shows us that life will certainly present some rather undesirable experiences, so the best we can do is keep our head up and continue to do what makes us happy.