Review: Lonesome Destiny

Upon my first listen to Bob Egan's latest effort, it was hard to grasp that the first four songs were actually left over from The Promise album. Thankfully, Mr. Egan has included these and two soundscapes on his Lonesome Destiny EP.

The opening track, "Liloette," is a fun number that should come with the following instructions. Drop the top down. Tap hands on steering wheel. Take the long way home, and hit Repeat 1 on your CD player. Fortunately the EP doesn't come with those instructions; otherwise, you would miss out on "Sarah's Song," which is by far the best track on the EP.

Richard Bell provides an achingly beautiful piano intro, but it's the distant drum and spacious sound of the track that for me raised the ghost of Roy Orbison. Rest assured, though, that this is Mr. Egan's song – a love's lament with the opening line "When the sound of night grows heavy and deep, you wrap your arms around yourself and weep." In this track Mr. Egan uses his steel guitar to solidify the real emotion of the song. My recommendation? Sell this one to Nashville, and retire on the royalties.

On the other hand, the song "Just A Man" was at first unnerving in the violence of the lyrics and emotionally vacant singing – until you realize that's the point. "I'm not God, I'm just a man" sings Mr. Egan in this tale of facing down the killer of your lover. The last of the leftovers, a song called "Desire" is adventuresome in its musicianship but falls short in lyrical content. The addition of horns and some interesting backing vocals would probably make for a great live number, though.

On the last two tracks Mr. Egan teams up with Jason Tait to create some no-boundaries soundscape type of songs. The bad news is that there are only two. The good news is that we can expect more on his next two albums. The first of the two immediately brought me back to a recent vacation outside Sierra Vista, Arizona. The sounds evoked sun-drenched walks amid the mesquite bushes of the high desert, time framed by majestic mountains with dust devils whirling in the distance. All this before I read the title: "Enter The Desert."

The ever hip last song "Muddy Waters," on the other hand, had me reaching for my sunglasses; it was that cool. I could easily imagine both songs on the soundtrack of a cult classic movie… leaving me with just one question: "Mr. Egan, has anyone called Quentin Tarantino yet?"