The Edge of Love Review

ALL HYDE, NO JEKYLL

Local musicians new album surpasses debut offering

By Cynthia Jardon (4/3/2000)

Assistant Features Editor/Alexandria, La.

The benchmark of the music business is often described by the trite but true saying “You're only as good as your last album.”

So each time a performer puts out a new album it is a defining moment.

The new album will describe and define or redefine that performer's talents and often future in the music business.

When local singer/songwriter and musician Josh Hyde debuted his first album last year – “All You Need Is Soul” -- I couldn't say enough about it.

I was delighted with the sound and totally taken with the man's songwriting abilities.

I looked forward to his next album.

A few weeks ago he dropped his second CD – “The Edge of Love” – by for me to listen to and review. It was oficially released two weeks ago.

I didn't drop it in the stereo right away. Then when I did listen I was hurried and distracted and thought I didn't like it as well as the first.

So I put it away, not sure just what I was going to say in my review – believing as I did that it fell short of the benchmark set by “All You Need Is Soul.”

By the time I took it out again I had four additional CDs to review as well as Hyde's.

So I set aside one of my day's off to just listen to all these CDs.

As one of Hyde's offerings on the albums says “Oh, if I could turn back the hands of time.”

If I could I would have listened the first time I put his CD in the stereo.

Each offering on this second album is impressive for various reasons – the music, the lyrics, the arrangement, the phrasing and the humor.

As it was with his first album, there is a range of songs that are clever without being cute, sentimental without being sloppy and original without being oppressive.

And so once again, “I think I'm on the Edge of Love.”

All musicians want to play and write good music, but a singer also wants people to hear the tunes.

So no matter how good the music, if it crosses the line from commercial to avant-garde, not too many people are going to hear it.

Hyde manages to keep the edge on his sound, maintain his originality and yet create a product that, if he can just get the right record producer, will probably get him a contract one of these days.

This is the kind of artist that changes the music scene, redefines what's cool and can make his mark with the right support, which is someone who won't try to change him because they recognize that he is the catalyst of change.

The boy blues player turned man has found “The Key,” to make blues blossom into something everybody listens to, not just those born blue or born on the bayou or born where blues was birthed.

Blues was loved and listened to in its infancy but not by everybody.

It wasn't until people like Muddy Waters, T-Bone Walker, Etta James and B.B. King took the blues out of the South and across the Mason-Dixon Line that it began to be understood by people not born to it.

Then when Fats Domino and Little Richard recreated the blues helping to birth a brand new sound blues was respected for its roots.

And people like Stevie Ray Vaughn came long to make blues so hot it was cool.

It's true that blues now has both respectability and a respectable following.

But Josh Hyde could be the guy who makes it so cool once again that it's hotter than Ricky Martin at a Miss America pageant.

The title cut “The Edge of Love” has a lazy bluesy sound backed by great lyrics and a guitar crying so sweetly in the background. It could, however, dispense with the discordant ending that introduces a harmonica disrupting the general feel of the song.

The second cut, “Friction, Baby,” is Hyde's humorous offering. If it doesn't scratch up a “that's too true” kind of chuckle the listener needs his funny bone checked.

It opens with a nice honky-tonk piano run and follows with a lyric of pure double entendre:

“Friction baby, that's what it takes, can't get through love without some cuts and scrapes.

“I'm bleeding, I'm bleeding, I'm down on my knees again. Friction, baby, your love is wearing me thin.”

The fifth cut, “Stuck in a Rut,” is anything but. A funky beat, some great brass and a solid lyric keep this one fresh.

The sixth song on the CD is a beautiful ballad called “Eyes of a Child.”

Once again Hyde awes me with his songwriting talents and gives me a new appreciation for arrangements as he adds steel guitar with a Hawaiian flair and a soft samba rhythm to this touching song.

Here's a sampling of the lyrics:

“I see your smile and the clouds break away. One look in your eyes and my dreams come alive. Now I know what it means, ‘Everything gleams through the eyes of a child.' …

“Won't you show me the way, let me come with you and play. Take me by the hand, take me to your box of sand. Now I know what it means. I wanna go where everything gleams.”

I could go on but, frankly, gushing is sickening after awhile.

This album worked out the kinks in sound quality that the first album had and the other improvement was it was pure Hyde.

Another surprise is the instrumental offerings. I admit to being partial to the songs with words, but the instrumental “Serenity” will give you just that feeling and is a nice break. And the closing cut “ Cozumel ” has a great low-key Santana kind of sound with a sultry Latin rhythm.

Hyde uses his blues roots to expose a multicultural approach to music that will one day be recognized for the innovation it is.

For information about Hyde, his music and how to get his CDs call

318-443-0131 or check out his music at www.amazon.com

Cynthia Jardon is Assistant features Editor at Alexandria Daily Town Talk. Her e-mail address is cjardon@thetowntalk.com

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