{"id":28972,"date":"2025-02-13T05:30:25","date_gmt":"2025-02-13T10:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=28972"},"modified":"2025-02-13T21:39:17","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T02:39:17","slug":"album-review-ed-rawlings-a-foolish-inconsistency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/13\/album-review-ed-rawlings-a-foolish-inconsistency\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Ed Rawlings \u2013 A Foolish Inconsistency"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Way back in 1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, \u201cA foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.\u201d The line is from his essay \u201cSelf-Reliance,\u201d itself an ironic title, seeing as by that time in his life he was living off his late wife\u2019s inheritance (the equivalent of more than a half million dollars in today\u2019s money). Hmm<\/em>. Unlikely as it may be for me to quote a sports figure, I am led to recall the words of college football coach Barry Switzer: \u201cSome people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ah, but I digress. And there\u2019s an album to review.<\/p>\n

Bay Area guitarist Ed Rawlings riffs on the quote for the title of his new album. A Foolish Inconsistency<\/i> is a varied and eclectic collection of eleven originals and one well-chosen cover. The instrumental pieces span and encompass a number of styles, making A Foolish Inconsistency<\/i> a showcase for Rawlings\u2019 talents.<\/p>\n

The album\u2019s variety means than no one track can represent what it\u2019s about. The opening track, \u201cDeparture\u201d features some catchy melodic runs, with hints of surf rock. Rawlings\u2019 main instrument is guitar, but here \u2013 and on all of the album \u2013 he plays keyboards as well. He\u2019s joined by bassist Uriah Duffy and drummer Jeff Campitelli; the latter is best-known for his long association with Joe Satriani.<\/p>\n

The softly swaying \u201cWaiting for Something\u201d is a sort of distant and modern cousin to Santo and Johnny\u2019s \u201cSleepwalk.\u201d \u201cThe Long Way Around\u201d has a character reminiscent of Mark Knopfler\u2019s work for film soundtracks. \u201cRiff Raft\u201d start subtly and builds to a soaring, contemplative arrangement. The expressive tonality of Rawlings\u2019 work reaches into a plethora of different corners; on A Foolish Inconsistency<\/i> he makes a point of not having one signature sound, and the album is better for that approach.<\/p>\n

Rawlings\u2019 reading of Los Lobos\u2019 \u201cArizona Skies\u201d has the requisite high lonesome vibe. \u201cSnap\u201d recalls the pre-rock era of jump blues and swing. \u201cThunderhead\u201d uses a simple melody as a canvas upon which Rawlings paints some impressive and expressive fretwork. The classic country two-step textures of \u201cThe Forever Afternoon\u201d calm things down a bit.<\/p>\n

But then the heavy, lumbering \u201cLands End\u201d showcases a blues feel. Seemingly intent on making A Foolish Inconsistency<\/em> as varied as possible, Rawlings\u2019 \u201cNot Thinking Twice\u201d is wholly acoustic, with multiple overdubbed guitars intertwining in a lovely m\u00e9lange. \u201cArrival\u201d stretches out, with soaring leads reaching for the sky; it offers some of the album\u2019s most memorable moments. The set closes with the chiming and warmly accessible \u201cAlmost Home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ed Rawlings gets his musical ideas across without words on A Foolish Inconsistency.<\/i> It\u2019s a pleasing set of tunes that yields dividends to the engaged listener.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Way back in 1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, \u201cA foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.\u201d The line is from his essay \u201cSelf-Reliance,\u201d itself an ironic title, seeing as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28973,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,49,62,65],"tags":[5619],"class_list":["post-28972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-instrumental","category-new-release","category-rawk","category-review","tag-ed-rawlings","cat-40-id","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28972"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29033,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28972\/revisions\/29033"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}