REVIEW: BRENT COBB – PROVIDENCE CANYON (2018)

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I’ll let you in to a secret. Reviewing albums is pretty easy. Usually, you listen to the first song, realise that you can work out what the thing sounds like, then in my case, mention Thin Lizzy a bit and slag Shinedown a couple of times and away you go.

Ok I jest (but not by much – and most definitely not about criticising Shinedown…..) but sometimes the formula gets skewed by something happening that you don’t expect.

Enter Brent Cobb.

“Providence Canyon” starts with its title track. A song so laid back and chilled, it is in a hammock in the sun. your notes read things like “Brothers Osborne”, “TC3”, “Chart bothering” and all the usual things, but then.

Well, by its fourth song, it is as heart-wrenching and raw as anything Alice In Chains ever did. Think I’m joking? Check this: “It’s a shame to be, self-proclaimed free, while trapped by the symptoms of addiction.” He offers at one point. Before following that up with “music used to be my way to escape…. now its become what defines my name, I wonder who it was I used to be.”

Subtext: forget your preconceptions. Cobb has just smashed them to bits.

Indeed that is the case for pretty much the whole of “Providence Canyon”. “King Of Alabama” is a brilliant piece of southern rock in tribute to his mentor, Wayne Mills. A fabulous song, it is in microcosm a perfect example of why Cobb is so good. It is far from the only one.

As you might have guessed – this is a particularly multi-faceted collection. “Mornings Gonna Come” knows exactly where the trouble is found, “Sucker For A Good Time” sees that and raises the stakes, but does have a superb line in backing vocals straight from the Muscle Shoals playbook while it’s at it.

“High In The Country” does its work in particularly blissed out fashion (and to be honest, what did you think was gonna happen with that title?), “If I Don’t See Ya” is even better and will be devoured gratefully by anyone who worships Creedence Clearwater Revival and if “30:06” is all a bit “God And Guns” both in the literal and Skynyrd sense then I guess that a bloke in the middle of England had best leave that one to the Deep South of the US.

We are on far safer ground with the Lap Steel drenched “Loreen”  as it’s just gorgeous, but the absolute highlight of this – and the key to understanding Cobb himself – comes in “When The Dust Settles”. The search for truth, for something real in music (Shinedown wouldn’t understand…come on, allow me that one!) is discussed over a catchy little swinger. “Well it’s nice to be number one, hell, that’s what we’re all here for” he sings, before the pay off. “but ain’t there room for something that ain’t like nothing nobody ever saw? Well if not, you can have it, I’d rather not be known at all.” That, right there, is Brent Cobb. That right there is “Providence Canyon”.

He carries the theme throughout the closing “Ain’t A Road Too Long”. “All I got is my good name” is the key line here. He understands, of course, the vulnerability of being a solo artist and he’s happy to lay that bare elsewhere, but the honesty with which he approaches things – together with his natural gift for writing songs that will hit the charts and stay there – is why Brent Cobb is on his way to the top.

Rating 8.5/10

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