CD Release Party: Bob Warren @ Caffe Lena on Saturday

Review by Greg Haymes

BOB WARREN
All the Days of the World
KBW Music, 2015

Greenwich-based tunesmith Bob Warren is certainly one of the North Country’s most prolific singer-songwriters, and his new 10-song album stands with the very best of his work.

The follow-up to last year’s You Taught Me Something New Today (a duet album with Joy MacKenzie), All the Days of the World opens up with “It’s for You,” a poignant, straight-up song of unconditional love, followed by “A Boy, a Glove, a Ball and Bat,” a wistfully nostalgic ballad that isn’t really about baseball at all, but rather the power of memory.

Throughout the disc, Warren mixes pitch-perfect word-play, keen observations, evocative insights and the influences of such A-list songsmiths as Randy Newman and Lyle Lovett, particularly on the bluesy swing of “Contact Low” and “Writer’s Block,” a jaunty, upbeat finger-pickin’ ode to the curse of writers everywhere that name-checks Shakespeare, Harper Lee and J.D. Salinger along the way.

But the highlight of All the Days of the World is the haunting soul ballad, “There’s No Turning Back,” with bassist Tony Markellis and organist Matt Donnelly underpinning Warren’s best vocal performance, which slips gracefully into a John Hiatt-like, heartache-filled falsetto.

Bob Warren celebrates the release of his new album at Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs on Saturday (November 7) with two shows – 4:30pm & 8pm. He’ll be joined by his band featuring Don Warren on guitar, Mitch Throop on bass, Danny Whelchel on hand percussion, Matt Donnelly on keyboards and Joy MacKenzie on vocals. Tickets are $18 in advance; $20 at the door.