Caught in the Carousel

Benjy Davis Project

Dust
Rock Ridge Music

Benjy Davis Project

Benjy Davis must have stacks of journals somewhere, both sides of the pages filled tightly with stories, poems and observations about the world. And those journals must be heavy, because the kid sure writes a lot. Not since early Springsteen has an artist emerged with such a deep lyrical satchel. But while Springsteen wrote about the heart in crushing, poetic couplets, Davis writes about it in Carver-like vignettes, his compositions reading more like short stories than song lyrics. "It's been a long day for us both," he sings on "Good Enough." And then: "I'm on the way to pick her up from work/And bring her home." Davis has no trouble setting a scene, but his true talent is showing how two people fumble through the minutia of their lives trying to keep it together even though they both know it's all falling relentlessly apart. Dust is filled with people pulling into driveways, getting free HBO in crappy hotels, renting tuxedos with whisky stains and drinking beer in the moonlight. In fact, it's so rife with moments like these, one gets the feeling that Davis thinks when two people are driving to the ocean, the drive is more important than the ocean itself. The folk rock of "Rain" is captained by a narrator who mourns he's, "watching all the plans we made go down the drain"; the banjo-tinged "Sweet Southern Moon" suggests Astral Weeks-era Van Morrison and the rootsy shuffle of "When I Go Home" is achingly lovely. But it's the spare closer "Over Me" that's the album's finest moment. With his voice rasping away in Steve Forbert-like fashion, Davis sings, "I'll be over Sunday/To cut myself out of your heart, babe." Devastating. Dust is filled with the kind of rock and roll magic that takes its cues from everyone from Neil Young to Springsteen but it can still stand up beautifully on its own.

—Alex Green