“Gomboo Blues" by Ben Charles – A Song Feature

 

     The invigorating rhythm is the initial draw to “Gomboo Blues.” Confessing to having the blues isn’t typically this electrifying. Then, with each listen to the track by Ben Charles, appreciation deepens for its subtle compositional nuances and shifting textures. Perhaps best of all, on two occasions the vocalist nearly whispers “Watch Out,” and the guitar emerges—steeped in Gypsy and Eastern hues—to briefly claim the spotlight. (The lyrics are included at the bottom of this post). 

     Ben Charles describes “Gomboo Blues” as “a snack-sized dream journey driven by relentless drum and bass interplay, gypsy guitar runs, and a dynamic narrator with a delivery both intimate and howling.” The song’s dream-journey quality becomes most apparent in its final minute, after a howling buildup ushers in a shift from the high-energy propulsion to a downtempo, dreamlike state. 
 
     The transition is reminiscent of The Beatles’ “A Day in the Life,” where an orchestral climax bridges two fundamentally different musical pieces. Like the Beatles’ track, “Gomboo Blues” flirts with drug imagery (“I’d love to turn you on” versus “She told me it was only to get me high”). But piano is not a featured instrument throughout Ben Charles’s single; instead, the recent release withholds the elegance of the piano until the final minute.
 
      Ben Charles released his debut album “Before the Fire” in 2023 after working with mixer Hugo Nicholson (In Rainbows) and mastering engineer, Dave McNair (The Next Day). Currently he is living on an old oil field in Southern California, where he formed a band called “The Flames” and is writing and recording a new double LP entitled “Deep Son,” due in 2027 via Lovelock Records.
 
     “Gomboo Blues" by Ben Charles

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bencharlesxo

Bandcamp: https://bencharlesxo.bandcamp.com/music

 Lyrics of “Gomboo Blues" by Ben Charles
Once I knew a woman by the name of Angelina
Shot her in the popcorn slums of Reseda
She told me it was only to get me high
And as she was falling
I thought I saw me die
 
Locked down tight at the edge of the word
Dreaming of the fire like a Hindenburg
All the piggies in the river and a wolf on the line
Don’t worry Mamma, I’m really feeling fine
 
C’mon now
Sometimes I just get the Gomboo Blues
I get the Gomboo Blues
I get the Gomboo Blues
I get the Gomboo Blues
(Watch out)
 
Sometimes…
I said “Tell me, Angelina, with your bluest rose,
Is a beauty in a bell jar free, you suppose..?
Now I know you never pull a devil by the horns
But is love just a game without a crown of thorns?”
A crown of thorns
 
C’mon now
Sometimes I just get the Gomboo Blues
I get the Gomboo Blues
I get the Gomboo Blues
I get the Gomboo Blues
(Watch out)
 
Baby how do I talk?
I got visions in my head
Breaking into my heart
When I’m lying in my bed
 
Thinking of what we could do
With a kiss forever
Now is true
And the only way with blues this blue
Is to kill myself
In love with you
 
Here I go
I didn’t know how much I’d miss you
Don’t look back
River, flow.

“The Thread” by Virginia MacNaughton – A Song Feature

 

     A search through the 13 years of posts on Indie Obsessive found only three occurrences of the word “flugelhorn.” To some degree that reflects our tastes, but we have featured many chamber bands, so it is more of an indication of the rare use of the flugelhorn in the Indie Universe. The flugelhorn shares many of the qualities of a trumpet, but is warmer and mellower.
 
     “The Thread” is the title track of an upcoming album from Virginia MacNaughton. She plays the piano and provides the vocals for the song. The flugelhorn in contributed by Felix Burling. MacNaughton explains that “The Thread” is about a new romantic connection and the persuasiveness of that connection, the sense of her new lover “imbuing everything.”
 
     Virginia MacNaughton is based in the UK. Her album, “The Thread,” is scheduled for a February 27 release. Currently, the album can be pre-ordered via Bandcamp (virginiamacnaughton.bandcamp.com/album/the-thread).
 
     “The Thread” by Virginia MacNaughton

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/virginiamacnaughton
Linktr.ee: https://linktr.ee/virginiamacnaughton

Lyrics of “The Thread” by Virginia MacNaughton
I will embrace this
Will you?
 
Alone I'll face this
With you
 
I'll reach up, align the stars
Before the golden hour
And if I overshoot this time
Then I'll come down in your next shower
 
In such a short time
I know you
 
The thread is pulling
Me to you
 
And as the moon is full and blue
The wave is strong and all I ask is
I can be the wind that whips you up
And spins you off your axis
 
I can't erase this
Like you
 
Because I got just one more moment
In your presence as a token
This is my concession prize
I could have left here quite unbroken
 
As a deadly winter sets in
Lit by only flashes
You will be the snow that settles
On my skin and my eyelashes
 
Because I got just one more moment
In your presence as a token
This is my concession prize
I could have left here quite unbroken
 
The thread is pulling me to you
I can't erase this
Like you

“Temptation” by Dax – A Song Feature

 

     Firstly, we confess there are other bloggers far better equipped to discuss the discography of Dax. He is primarily a Rapper, so his music resides in a genre that we prefer to leave for reviewers with a greater appreciation and knowledge of that style of music. Still, Dax is a prolific composer and with each release that finds its way to us, both the clarity and the intelligence of the message induce multiple listens.
 
     Dax uses diversity in genres as a toolbox. He is primarily a Rapper, but has vocal charisma across a range of styles. And Dax shifts styles depending upon what he wants to communicate — aggressive Rap to express anger, melodic passages to expose weakness, and sometimes naked spoken-word when divulging accountability.
 
     “Temptation,” describes the on-going battle to stay true to your moral compass. Both the first and the last verse of the song begin “Temptations outside, knocking at my door  //  I won the battle last night, but I’m still at war.” Thus, “every moment of resistance to temptation is a victory.”  For the message, Dax selected a style that is far more closely aligned with Country than with Rap. The exception is the verse that starts around 2:09, when there is a brief masterful switch to his musical base. Instrumentally, our favorite contribution is the banjo that is particularly apparent near the end of “Temptation” (after 2:44).
 
     Dax is Canada-born, although his Facebook site indicates that he is now living in Wichita, Kansas. He is a 26-year-old singer and Rapper who has been described as “currently making something out of absolutely nothing.” We don’t agree – Dax possesses both poetic and musical skills that set him apart from others.
 
     “Temptation” by Dax

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thatsdax

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thatsdax

 

Lyrics of “Temptation” by Dax
Temptations outside, knocking at my door
I won the battle last night, but I’m still at war
I starve my flesh,
then feed my spirit with faith
Then raise hell till it’s up at Heavens Gates
 
Temptation creeps into an idle mind
Lack of purpose is the place seeking pleasure resides and feel safe
(and get’s its strength)
Temptation loves fame, serves ego and pride
Mama told me two wrongs, don’t make no right So I pray
(the temptation away)
 
Temptation makes slaves out of lustful eyes
It’ll rob you of your happiness And pay you attention with lies
In that darkness, you’ll find shame ‘s not worth your time
then appraise your Sin for the cost of peace of mind
 
Temptation creeps into an idle mind
Lack of purpose is the place seeking pleasure resides and feel safe
(and get’s its strength)
Temptation loves fame, serves ego and pride
Mama told me two wrongs, don’t make no right So I pray
(the temptation away)
 
Down by the Riverbend
in the garden, where the snake tempted Adam and Eve,
they ate the fruit and from those seeds
grew the roots of this family tree
It’s why we struggle it’s why we fight
our mother’s nature, fathered time
the human race, but fall behind
dying to live but all living to die
for goodness sake,
we’ve been a tone for sins and given God’s grace
stuck in this Babylonic world we can't escape
going to war with Demons every day,
the soul and spirit break that’s why I pray
 
Temptations outside, knocking at my door
I won the battle last night, but I’m still at war
I starve my flesh, then feed my spirit with faith
Then raise hell till it’s up at Heavens Gates