It would be hard to say that Daniel Roman has returned. The guy simply has not left. Saying that this guy is a musical shape-shifter would e an understatement. He simply gets into a musical style until he explores it completely. The Canadian has come up with seven albums in four years, and while everybody bagged him as a pure country revivalist (with a tongue firmly in his cheek) when he started out. Since last year’s Mosey, Romano is exploring all aspects, Dylan. With his newest one Modern Pressure, we’re somewhere in the late Sixties, early Seventies. The way he’s doing it and what he has come up with musically, I’d say he should definitely continue. Dylan himself seems to be too busy with the traditional American Songbook.
Like on Mosey, Romano is truly able to transfer himself into the Dylan person of the era, just a bit more melodious I guess. The time he spent secluded in Scandinavia writing this album obviously reaped its rewards because the songs sound completely thought and worked out. The title song boasts a beautiful arrangement akin to mid-period Dylan, while Roya shows that Romano though of even painstaking details like including a brief sitar cameo, akin to something George Harrison one of Dylan’s late good friends would do. But then Romano doesn’t simply mimic a style and fits it simply into a certain time period - The Pride of Queens, for example, combines the Highway 61 Revisited/Blonde On Blonde organ swirls with Desire period compositional style with some good rock guitar. On the other hand, When I Learned Your Name, is aJohn Wesley Harding “tune”, with some backward psychedelic guitars thrown in.
Throw into the mix the fact that Romano is a somebody who can come up with some really good lyrics. Don’t know whether he can match his inspiration here, but at moments he can definitely get quite close. What Romano shows is that he is not just a guy who can wholly incorporate somebody else’s music style, but that true knowledge gives you the capability to innovate and actually make the music you come up with not just a copy but truly your own. Is there another one coming up this year?
