Music Review // Allen Dobb "At the Bridge"

 

There is something about nature in this song by Allen Dobb that comes out not only through the lyrics, but through the sound itself.  "At the Bridge" can begin feeling like it has acoustic guitar chords and vocals, but as the song goes on you'll begin to hear more layers of acoustics come in, but also just the strings.  I feel like I can hear a violin and perhaps a ukulele or banjo.  The way that different strings- but not electric- come to be represented on this one song is quite the accomplishment musically for Allen Dobb.

Lyrically the song "At the Bridge" is about nature in a way as well.  There is a story being told and though some of the points are specific it can still be up to you to decide how you might want to hear this one.  For me, when this song starts with the line "After 1862 nothing would ever be the same" my mind started thinking about how becoming civilized is good for humans but not for nature.  This also comes in with the line: "A few strong trees left to see another year after the silent killer landed on the shore".

When I was growing up my grandparents owned a lot of farm land and when they retired from farming they sold off a lot of the land, which then became "developed" as they built houses on it.  These new residents would say that they saw a bear in their backyard or something to that extent, and all I could think was that the bear was there first and they built their house on the bear's home.  This idea comes out in the line: "I know the land means everything and more" because what do the animals really have but land?

At some point in our lives I feel like we either have this awakening about nature or we just go through our whole lives not really caring and just oblivious to it all.  But I've always wondered when you have these places which feel like the woods and then you build a shopping center over it- where do the animals go?  I'm glad that this song by Allen Dobb makes me think about that because maybe someone else will also hear this song but then have that thought for the first time.