Accompanied only by his acoustic guitar, a singer-songwriter places the onus on his songs, his voice, and his picking to separate himself from the downy snowstorm of similar arrangements that fall continually upon the living and the dead. On this live recording, Jesse Moore proves a capable talent on all three tools, without distinguishing himself too dramatically from those who’ve graced similar stages.
On these 14 tracks, we get G-C-D-C chord progressions, subterranean short stories, men crying at the edge of canyons, and a nice touch on the James Taylor-esque ballads. A dash of Adam Durst and Van Morrison make clear Moore’s sympathies. He is believable and crafts decent declarations of love, even if he occasionally leans on rhyme schemes involving “romance” and “dance.”
Though a spare set-up provides full light for Moore’s songwriting skills, the album could use an extra guitar or vocal to complicate things and add some texture. Still, perhaps Moore is correct when he claims on one of the stronger tracks, “I’m a complicated man / with a short attention span / and truth be told / I’m better alone.”
