American Gospel - Tall Tales Vol. 1 (2012)

Tracklist

01. I Know
02. Bayonet
03. The Hanged Man
04. Say
05. Hunting Boar
06. The Woods
07. The Falling Feeling
08. Better Off Explicit
09. Forget Not Yet
10. I'll Never Let You Go
11. World Lines
12. Geronimo

As the first record from American Gospel, Tall Tales vol. 1 comes out of the gate in a strong way. Gregg DellaRocca (of The Republic of Wolves) created this project to channel his musical talent into a multi-genre record. You want trumpets and trombones and banjos?You want a jazzy saxophone riff to catch you off guard? You want lyrics that will embody the very essence of poetry? All present. It’s a simple thing to tell a story. It’s a little more difficult to tell a story that never happened. What’s more, few artists can seamlessly mesh true stories with manufactured ones and make you believe every single one of them, much less make you become emotionally attached to them. That’s exactly what happens with these 12 tracks.
Tall Tales stretches it’s limbs into every corner of music, but doing so gracefully and balanced, so as to not topple the tremendous weight of its endeavors. There’s so much content, between stories of a man seeking revenge for the death of his father, a boy getting courage to be a savior for his people, and several honest real-life experiences, each portrayed with splendid originality from a truly talented artist.
There is something about the horns in Tall Tales that takes me to New Orleans. Hearing them, I can almost smell the sweat and piss in Bourbon Street. The nagging fear of getting mugged or shanked. The constant sirens in the distance. It’s an adrenaline rush. What DellaRocca has done with this album, between creating the artwork, writing all of the lyrics, playing most of the instruments, and handling the mixing, mastering, and production, he has given it a feeling of fluidity. Yes, it may hop genres throughout, but that’s just the different limbs making their way outward in separate directions. A feeling of loss and retrospect is still pinned at the hub of it all, with a deep, believable sense of pain permeating nearly every song. After listening for weeks to an album that has such intimacy, that it makes me feel the loss and regret and heart poured into each song, I can honestly say “Tall Tales Vol. I, a bon coeur.”

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