Has their ever been an artist that you were aware of, but for whatever reason you never paid much attention to them? Maybe you liked the single they had out and bought it, maybe you even got the CD it was on, but you just never got around to really listening to it? Maybe you listened to it once, but not closely. I'm not convinced that I'm explaining this well; this kind of thing happens to me more often than I'd like to admit. I'll like an artist on a basic level, but for some reason they'll be more or less under the radar for me. I don't know why this happens and I'll be honest and say this was the case with me and David Nail.
I remember seeing someone tweeting about his song "Red Light" and was interested enough to go check it out. And I really liked it. It's a great song and it was enough to make me buy the album. I got to see him open for Jason Aldean, I guess a couple of years ago by now, and liked him. He put on a good show, had a solid set. But even still, I never really listened to him all that much. That changed a bit when "Let It Rain" came out. Another great song and it had the bonus of having a great video which is always a major plus with me. I got his latest CD, The Sound of a Million Dreams, but he's kind of stayed under the radar for me. This is by no means any fault of his; I never disliked him or anything like that. He just never got my attention completely.
Now he's released the title track of that CD and I've been listening to it a lot to prepare for this review. And you know what? He has my attention now. Let's look at this further...
First things first. "The Sound of a Million Dreams" was written by Scooter Carusoe and Phil Vassar and it's a song about the power of a song. It's about a person understanding that power and wanting to create music that people can connect with on an emotional level. It starts off on a fairly light note and he reflects on a past love and how a certain song takes him back to that time. In this instance the song in question is Bob Seger's "Main Street". Later on, we get a glimpse of the struggles he's faced in his life - in this case, the songs in question like Merle Haggard's "Mama Tried" bring up all the painful memories of that time. The second verse goes a little deeper than the first and provides a nice contrast. Songs have the power to conjure up all kinds of memories and emotions or as the song puts it, "the sound of a million dreams".
I have a lot of love for the title - what a fantastic way to describe the power music has. This song was so beautifully crafted; perhaps more so than any other song I've said that about so far. There's a nice artistry here. This song is very strong lyrically. My favorite lines are in the chorus: "Maybe my voice will cut through the noise/ And stir up an old memory/ And out of these piano keys/ Comes the sound, the sound of a million dreams".
Musically speaking, I love the arrangement here and the production is wonderful. If they had done anymore with it, it would've lost its power. It's fairly simplistic; you have a piano and a steel guitar. The piano is the main focus here, which is only appropriate given the lines I just quoted. The steel guitar adds a lovely flavor to the song; it's the perfect accent to the piano and used just enough. I love guitars and drums and all of that, but sometimes there's just no beating a piano and a singer. I have a major soft spot for the steel guitar so I love that it was used the way it was. Beautiful playing being done here. I haven't really mentioned melody in my reviews, but I really like this one. It flows so nicely.
Okay, now let's talk about the vocals. This might be a big statement I'm about to make, but I'm making it: this song has me believing that David Nail is one of the best male singers in country music. He has a great tone to his voice that reminds me a bit of Ronnie Dunn and he has a clarity to his voice that kind of reminds me of Gary LeVox. Plus a little something extra. He sings with such feeling and I love it. Fantastic delivery here. It sounds like he made an effort to pour as much of himself into this as he possibly could and it paid off. He didn't write this song, but if I hadn't read that I would've assumed he had based on the delivery.
Yeah, so I guess you could say I liked this song. I'm sure that wasn't obvious at all, right? I have to say that country artists are making my job as a reviewer very easy; the streak continues. For now. There are some singles out now that I don't like. But we'll deal with those when I get there. Basically to sum this up, if you don't have this song in your collection, you need to change that. Do yourself a favor and let David Nail get your attention. It's attention well deserved.
I remember seeing someone tweeting about his song "Red Light" and was interested enough to go check it out. And I really liked it. It's a great song and it was enough to make me buy the album. I got to see him open for Jason Aldean, I guess a couple of years ago by now, and liked him. He put on a good show, had a solid set. But even still, I never really listened to him all that much. That changed a bit when "Let It Rain" came out. Another great song and it had the bonus of having a great video which is always a major plus with me. I got his latest CD, The Sound of a Million Dreams, but he's kind of stayed under the radar for me. This is by no means any fault of his; I never disliked him or anything like that. He just never got my attention completely.
Now he's released the title track of that CD and I've been listening to it a lot to prepare for this review. And you know what? He has my attention now. Let's look at this further...
First things first. "The Sound of a Million Dreams" was written by Scooter Carusoe and Phil Vassar and it's a song about the power of a song. It's about a person understanding that power and wanting to create music that people can connect with on an emotional level. It starts off on a fairly light note and he reflects on a past love and how a certain song takes him back to that time. In this instance the song in question is Bob Seger's "Main Street". Later on, we get a glimpse of the struggles he's faced in his life - in this case, the songs in question like Merle Haggard's "Mama Tried" bring up all the painful memories of that time. The second verse goes a little deeper than the first and provides a nice contrast. Songs have the power to conjure up all kinds of memories and emotions or as the song puts it, "the sound of a million dreams".
I have a lot of love for the title - what a fantastic way to describe the power music has. This song was so beautifully crafted; perhaps more so than any other song I've said that about so far. There's a nice artistry here. This song is very strong lyrically. My favorite lines are in the chorus: "Maybe my voice will cut through the noise/ And stir up an old memory/ And out of these piano keys/ Comes the sound, the sound of a million dreams".
Musically speaking, I love the arrangement here and the production is wonderful. If they had done anymore with it, it would've lost its power. It's fairly simplistic; you have a piano and a steel guitar. The piano is the main focus here, which is only appropriate given the lines I just quoted. The steel guitar adds a lovely flavor to the song; it's the perfect accent to the piano and used just enough. I love guitars and drums and all of that, but sometimes there's just no beating a piano and a singer. I have a major soft spot for the steel guitar so I love that it was used the way it was. Beautiful playing being done here. I haven't really mentioned melody in my reviews, but I really like this one. It flows so nicely.
Okay, now let's talk about the vocals. This might be a big statement I'm about to make, but I'm making it: this song has me believing that David Nail is one of the best male singers in country music. He has a great tone to his voice that reminds me a bit of Ronnie Dunn and he has a clarity to his voice that kind of reminds me of Gary LeVox. Plus a little something extra. He sings with such feeling and I love it. Fantastic delivery here. It sounds like he made an effort to pour as much of himself into this as he possibly could and it paid off. He didn't write this song, but if I hadn't read that I would've assumed he had based on the delivery.
Yeah, so I guess you could say I liked this song. I'm sure that wasn't obvious at all, right? I have to say that country artists are making my job as a reviewer very easy; the streak continues. For now. There are some singles out now that I don't like. But we'll deal with those when I get there. Basically to sum this up, if you don't have this song in your collection, you need to change that. Do yourself a favor and let David Nail get your attention. It's attention well deserved.
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