David Robert King hails from Boise, Idaho and in my opinion is someone we all need to pay very close attention to. His EP Take Me Home is comprised of five very well-crafted tunes that obviously come from the very heart and soul of this young artist.
As I have stated in many reviews of americana and/or roots music over the years, for the music to be successful it must come from the heart and soul. If it doesn’t, it fails. By successful, I don’t mean it has to sell a million copies. It simply means the artist has to be satisfied with his work. After compiling these five tunes, Mr. King should be very satisfied.
He begins the EP with a strange little love ballad called “Strange Freedom”. I get it though. “There’s a strange freedom in knowing//The one that you love doesn’t love you back”. True statement. It’s the not knowing that holds you prisoner and will drive you insane. At the very least, the knowledge of not having reciprocal love frees us, eventually enabling us to move on to the next heartbreak, or whatever else lies ahead.
Next up is the title cut for the EP, “Take Me Home”. It’s a painful, yet well-crafted tune about sleepless nights and tormented days of lost love, broken hearts, and striving to get back to where you were prior to the broken heart, but the receiver of said love is not on the same page. The confusion, the pain, the hope, the disappointments; it’s all present in this fine tune. “My head is spinning and my hearts a mess/Take me home/But in the meantime/Leave me alone”
The final cut on the EP is very cool tune called “As Closed”. The gentle picking of the banjo, accompanied by piano and organ all compliment each other, gracefully building as we move along through the song, intertwining beautifully with the lyrics. “As closed as my eyes seem/I can tell you’re right there with me/And I’ll hold on to you/Even when the whole world shakes/The world will just have to wait/You’re all I can see/You made everything different/You made everything beautiful.”
Where previous tunes on the record have been about confusion, hopelessness, and wounded hearts, this song is a sharp contrast, bringing the listener messages of hope and the beauty of love found, along with the joy it can bring to us. It is absolutely my favorite song on the EP and was a great way to end this superb treasure. The music here is big, very big. I would be quite amazed if we do not hear a lot more from this exceptional new artist. I could honestly relate to every single tune on the EP.
David Robert King is a very talented singer/songwriter and I truly enjoyed listening to and writing about his fastidiously sensitive music. I definitely will look forward to hearing more from him in the future.
Review by Rod Ames
