Bluesy San Francisco rocker Dean Del Ray took his time releasing his first album, Lone Mountain Serenade. Del Ray has been playing professionally since he was in high school and in 1989 moved from his home in Petaluma, California to San Francisco where he has soldiered on while the San Francisco music scene has shrunk in the face of soaring rents and an exodus of artists and musicians for cheaper, friendlier climes.

Co-produced by Del Ray with Counting Crow David Immergluck and Jacquire King, Lone Mountain Serenade showcases Del Ray's fine singing voice on some very tasteful original mid-tempo contemporary rock songs. With Immergluck handling most of the lead and pedal steel guitar playing, the album has a rootsy California feel with a dramatic flair that will certainly be compared to Immergluck's Counting Crows, but that would be a simplistic generalization as the album ranges across a number of rock and bluesy sounds that remind us of Black Crowes, Wallflowers and other bands currently on the popular radar screen like Matchbox 20.

Rather than a frenetic or self-indulgent approach, Del Ray's is controlled and deliberate, and could be described as classic, as these are certainly well crafted songs, not jams or throwaway lyrics set to music. While there is certainly a cohesiveness to the album, each song stands well alone and most would make good radio singles fare. Soul-influenced funky blues rockers like "Damn" ("I can't believe I'm not your man") and "Fittin' In" echo the Black Crowes' punchy Southern approach, although to some extent they also have echoes of Aerosmith both vocally and stylistically. Immergluck's steel guitar fills give the loud and brash "Damn" an unexpected sensitivity before he drops the steel for a boiling slide solo as the band lays down a thick funky rhythm in building to an ending crescendo.

But Del Ray is hardly one-dimensional. He can shift into several different gears, such as the touching, understated "Blue" with its late-night, reflective, rhythmically linear Tom Petty-ish groove and tone augmented by the quiet, true-blue lead guitar by Torey Adler. The Counting Crows-sounding country rock of "Make It Right", which features some fine steel guitar work by Immergluck, let's Del Ray show the emotional range of his voice and the depth of his songwriting. And along with his singing, songwriting is certainly Del Ray's strong suit. Del Ray leans toward the sad and blue with his lyrics, and on his first album most of his work deals with everyday problems, desires, daily trials and the search for a decent, successful life.

"Mr. Guitar," a what-am-I-doing-with-my-life lament that almost any musician will instantly relate to, is the most elaborate arrangement and production on the album and is a great vehicle for Del Ray to display his talent.

Mr. Guitar, won't you make me a star, now won't you?
Show me the way to a better day and I'll owe you
Playin' these bars, earnin' my scars, now won't you
Show me the way to a better day and I'll owe you?
Now I wait here hopin' to find some gold
But I'm stuck outside, I'm stuck out in the cold
Can't see my way under these lights in my old shoes
At the end of the day I got no place to go except home with you
And the ride in the van can kill you, man, when your dreams they don't come true
So many fade away but I'll push another day on with you

On "Highway," Del Ray shows a very convincing and appealing world-weary voice and is backed with some beautiful harmonies while Immergluck flashes the twangy guitar style that set the Counting Crows records apart from other California soft-rockers. And on "Rebound," Del Ray further demonstrates the depth of his songwriting craft.

At the end of the day
When the flower's decay
And it all falls away
I'll be lost in your heart
When it all falls apart
But I know I'll be ready

Dean Del Ray's first CD is surprisingly good. It certainly doesn't sound like a first CD, but with 16 years of playing under his belt and an outstanding ensemble of musicians assisting on the album, why should it? While it is somewhat derivative and often recalls other well-known bands, what in the rock genre these days doesn't? Del Ray's singing, his songwriting, and his approach are listenable, pleasing, and professional, and his supporting cast is top-shelf, making Lone Mountain Serenade a freshman effort to be reckoned with in my opinion. In this day when the major labels and their contracted acts have such a stranglehold on the music and the marketing outlets, the most difficult thing for any artist like Dean Del Ray is getting any notice at all.
Anyone can make a CD these days, and it often seems like everyone is. Like any number of "unknowns" who just keep cranking out their music, who keep honing their skills, rehearsing, writing, gigging, looking for a break, Dean Del Ray deserves his hearing.

* If you like funky, sincere, well played adult rock, Dean Del Ray has it for you.
www.rootsrock.com/DeanDelRay.htm

Contact William Michael Smith at: wms-at-rockzilla.net

 
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