Tomorrow Is A Mystery

Awakenings

Artists: Kevin Roth (dulcimer/piano), Dan O’Brien (bass, guitar) and Noel Paul Stookey (guitar on “Every Flower.”)
Star Gazer Productions, Inc.
www.kevinrothmusic.com 2015
12 Tracks
Running Length: 45 minutes

After 47 recordings, Kevin Roth hasn't run out of music. His latest album, “Awakenings,” includes eight of his compositions, with the rest by John Mayer, Gordon Sumner and Stookey, Yarrow and Milstein. Kevin Roth has been performing for over thirty years and the dulcimer is his instrument, plus the piano and a guitar-cimer, (half guitar, half dulcimer) that was especially made for him. He has recorded for Smithsonian Folkways, Sony, National Geographic and Random House. On this solo album, he runs the gamut from finding the muse (“Svengali’s Muse”) to humor (“Walt Grace’s Submarine Test”) to sadness (“False Knight On the Road”) to the instrumental “Fields of Gold,”

Kevin Roth has a clear voice that brings out the lyrics of his songs. With a soft dulcimer background, the listener can concentrate on “out of darkness comes a caterpillar’s cocoon, butterfly in blue” from “Metamorphosis” or “memories turn to melodies and I sing this sweet song” from “Gone.” “Out Is In” has “only way out is in…mystery begins, yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery.”

This collection of songs has a story in each song, and accompanied on dulcimer with Roth‘s clear voice, the lyrics are in the forefront. My favorite is the first song on the album, “Aurora” about sitting on a porch in summer and wishing for the aurora borealis. Once you have seen/heard it, you can't forget it.

Copyright 2016 Marie Asner