Earl J Rivard III and his father, Earl J Rivard Jr, have a rare father/son relationship, working as songwriting partners. They have been writing and performing together since Earl III was 12, though he was singing long before that. Today, Earl Jr makes rare appearances on stage with his son, preferring to manage his son’s career, whose talent for performance, he says, “has ended up far outstripping my own.”
Though father-child collaboration has been successful with other talents such as Arlo Guthrie and his son and daughter, this musical team is quite unique. Earl III has been blind since he was four months old when a drunk driver cost him his sight and left him partially paralyzed on his left side. His love of music and his ability to sing seemed to be the universe’s compensation for his physical losses. He could memorize songs easily and render them back with musical accuracy even when he was barely able to sit in a high chair. He became a sieve for song lyrics and melodies and today boasts a repertoire of five hundred cover songs.
His motivation to play the guitar in spite of his physical limitations spurred him to strengthen his arm. He has since developed a unique, sophisticated guitar style to accompany his vocals, whether performing alone as Earl J, Troubadour or in several local bands, including Earl J and The Minor 7th or playing bass with The Highway Robbers or the Butter Band. Earl III, whose mother is from Argentina, spent his teens there, participating with locals in guitarreadas, where musicians pass a guitar around among themselves and share songs. These live song-sharing sessions can be the best places to learn new techniques and songs, and also to test out new material. For Earl III they were essential for his growing talent.
But it is his voice that is his strength. Able to write and sing in English, Spanish, and Italian, Earl III delivers his songs with a full rich voice that can be romantically lyrical or powerfully rocking. Earl III’s current CD, Underground Railroad, presents two original songs written and sung in Spanish. “Magdalena” was written by Earl Jr. and “Vuélvete”, which means “return to” or “go back”, was a collaboration between father and son.
It is songs such as these that comprise the meat of Underground Railroad, romantic offerings that stir the heart. Earl J Rivard III not only sings and does his own backup vocals, but he also plays acoustic rhythm guitar, congas, shaker, and tambourine. He and BZ Lewis, who sat in on a few tracks, collaborates on the string and flute arrangements. Supporting these songs are fellow musicians Lance Riley on drums, Mike Wynar on lead guitar, Max Cowan on keys, and Dave Lionelli, founder of the Butter Band, on bass.
“Till I Met You” is a romantic ballad by Earl Jr. that has lovely piano support by Timothy Drury. “The Sun Finally Rose,” a father/son collaboration boasts BZ Lewis’s second lead guitar that is a sweet addition to this track. “This Time Around,” a rock and roll ballad about finding love for a second time, shows Earl III’s vocal versatility. His “Lady, Sweet Lady,” in contrast, is almost a period ballad that could have been written at the same time as “Barbara Allen.” It would make a great cut for movie soundtrack. But Earl III’s “Yours Eternally” that offers a lifelong pledge to a woman could become an all time much-requested wedding song. It is once more sweetly supported by Timothy Drury’s piano.
In contrast, there are two songs about love growing cold. “Coldest Place,” with Mike Wynar’s delicate lead guitar, is a chilling look at dying love. That theme is echoed in “Sometimes Love”, rendered as an acoustic pop ballad, but here it is more of a cautionary tale about what can happen if love isn’t tended properly.
The four other cuts on the album are odd contributions. “Nobody Knows” is a tune about wayward youth and is quite well done. Their “Unfinished Songs,” however, is purely self-indulgent. Songs like this aren’t really of interest to most listeners.
But the question mark about this album is the CD’s title and its beginning and ending tracks. “Underground Railroad” is a song about unfair immigration laws that is a bit of collaborative writing between father and son. The first cut is the full version and the last cut is an edited radio version. It is clear that the songwriters feel strongly about this issue and what they have to say about it deserves to be heard. But the placement, first and last, and calling the album the same name implies that there will be more songs about this issue or others that might be underground in some way. It would have served them better to either release this one song as a single or wait until they had four or five more to do an EP of social commentary songs, a there is a growing listenership for that.
Still, Underground Railroad is a testament to the writing skills of this father/son team and showcases Earl J Rivard’s powerful and versatile voice, a fresh new talent.
Review by Janie Franz
