Music Review // Allen Dobb "Lone Tree of Your Heart"

 

When you see the name Allen Dobb you might think "singer/songwriter" but along with his vocals and acoustic guitar, there is a fiddle (which I mistook for a violin), upright bass, banjo and mandolin.  These sounds all feel like they are lead by the acoustic guitar, as they are a bit lighter in the verses, but by the chorus they all kick in for an acoustic explosion.  When I think about music that can be considered folk or Americana but doesn't really have country influences in it, this is the type of music that I think of and enjoy.

Allen Dobb, if nothing else, is a storyteller.  The way he can work a lyric like "Your sleeve comes up to wipe the sweat from your face" just goes to show that his songs can have parts about every day life- things we just do without thinking about them- but then as they are described within the songs, a sense of meaning is brought to them.  These lyrics aren't just about the big, important seeming events but also include the details that some might find to be boring, but through the song they are given importance.

The chorus really sets the story of the song and it's complex.  "There's a longing in the hills a stone's throw away from here / Sometimes when you get there its gone, so you wait".  This is that feeling of almost hunting and I don't think of hunting as shooting animals any more but rather in a photgraphic way, where you think "Oh, they say there's some rare species of animal over those hills" and you go to try and photograph them, but they're not there at that time so you have to wait them out.  This can feel like a comparison for so many things in life.

"For a song sparrow that knows the spot all the tunes and all the parts", the chorus continues, "And it's right there in the lone tree of your heart / And you fly away".  This is one of those things that you're going to have to take your own way, but for me it feels like you're going somewhere hoping to find some happiness or sense of purpose, you have to wait, but you eventually do find it and then you leave with a full heart.  The way that this all is just so connected to nature makes it even more beautiful and it should make you want to get out there and experience all of that as well.