CD Review
Darryl Purpose
The Traveler's Code
(Tangible Music)
More to my taste than David Wilcox in the sentimental style of folk is Darryl Purpose. Purpose is a master storyteller - maybe it's not surprising, considering his previous career as a gambler. Not a lot of folksingers these days are ex-gamblers (compared to ex-preachers),but after all, the gambler is a consummate showman, a teller of tales. Each successful bet takes timing, building suspense, using misdirection, and perhaps most important, leaving the other players with the conviction that they just might beat you next time.... What is surprising is how gentle this ex-gambler has become. His album The Traveler's Code has rightfully earned him a place in the hearts of those who like the softer side of folk. "Mr. Schwinn" tells the sentimental story of a bicycle shop owner who keeps a pair of bikes for the day when he finds the woman he will marry - but the old man remains a bachelor till his death and the narrator inherits the twin Schwinns. The rhythms and rhymes of the song are irresistable, rolling along like wheels, as is the bittersweet twist of the story's end. Another song off this disk that has poked its head above the radar is "The Last Great Kiss of the 20th Century" in which guy meets girl, they kiss on midnight 2000, and then just in case the century doesn't end till the following year, promise to kiss again same time, same place next year. Instead, that promised kiss goes to the three month old daughter they now have. You do the math and you wonder what the song is saying about love... but it's a great tale, well told.
One song here - "True As The River" - is a small, simple gem on an otherwise lushly produced album. This song is a vision in which the dreamer's skin falls away like clothes to reveal his bones, shining. Standing more than naked before his lover, he asks to be accepted for what he is and nothing more.
My bones are shining bright but not broken you
can hold onto them, climb up to the sky on them....true as the river I stand before you naked
before youtrue as the river
I spoke to Darryl about the album and sure enough, this one song came more spontaneously than the rest and was added almost as an afterthought. To my mind, though, this is the song that is a signal of what this writer is capable of - a sustained vision, full of images that are not metaphors for something else, and metaphors that deepen the experience instead of substituting for it.