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Robert Hazard
Troubador
Ryko
To get the trivia out of the way, yes, Robert Hazard is the man who penned Cyndi Lauper’s massive hit “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” But that also means that he’s the author of the sentiment “That’s all they really want.” To be fair, Hazard was a young man in a bathtub (it’s true) when he wrote that line and now all these years later, even he’d surely admit that he’s learned girls want more than that. Full of weary sentimentalism and rugged, hard-won observations about the world, Hazard is not the fellow he was when he figured he knew what girls wanted when the working day was done. Troubadour showcases the Philadelphia native’s penchant for writing tuneful numbers about the importance of optimism (“I Still Believe In You”) and the inextricable connections we make with each other (“Bound”). Armed with a voice that falls somewhere between Greg Brown and Michael McDermott, Hazard has an ageless grace that imbues each number with a masterful knowledge about the world we live in. There are light Tex-Mex excursions (“Whole Lot Of Water”, “Midnight Gal”) Springsteen-like serenades (“Nobody But The Night”) and a devastating acoustic closer (“Ride To Town”). A rootsy triumph.
--Alex Green
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