Review of Thirteen Stories High
Joel Rafael
Many special guests were featured on those previous cd's. Names such as vocalists Arlo Guthrie, Jackson Browne, Jimmy LaFave, Jennifer Warnes en de Burns Sisters, but also famous musicians such as Van Dyke Parks en Matt Cartsonis (from Warren Zevon). The special thing about these cd's was that it only consisted of Guthrie- compositions, but not on this new release. Besides eleven self-penned songs there are two covers: "Rich Man’s War" a Steve Earle song from "The Revolution Starts Now" and the classic "I Ought to Know" by Jack Hardy. Rafael has grown as a singer songwriter and brings a lot of originality and spontanity in his songs. You can notice this in the diverse character of the songs on"Thirteen Stories", because it is just as the title indicates: here are thirteen different stories about the most diverse subjects. Folk remains the most important ingrediënt in Rafael's music, and once again this new album is filled with wonderful folky compositions.
"Thirteen Stories" will certainly be one of those cd's which will accompany me on my holiday trip in a few weeks. Wonderful songs like the opening track: "This Is My Country" a protest song with some nice help from David Crosby en Graham Nash, the lovesong "Ball and Chain", and "Rich Man's War". The song"I Ought to Know" a pleasantly rocking song, can immediately be categorised under "Superior Americana", this are songs who remind the work of Tom Russell, Dave Alvin en Guy Clark. Our favourite however remains "Promised Land", which Joel himself calls the "to hell and back song", a folk ballade "Wild Honey" and "Missing Pages", songs who show social involvement. Thirteen Stories" is an impressive bunch of songs about the American society. Songs that go deep. With the help of some strong musicians this troubadour proves to be one of the big names in folk At least that is what he should be or become. "Thirteen Stories" is his masterpiece up until now.