DAVID ROBERT KING

David Robert King hails from Boise, Idaho and in my opinion is someone we all need to pay very close attention to. His EP Take Me Home is comprised of five very well-crafted tunes that obviously come from the very heart and soul of this young artist.

As I have stated in many reviews of americana and/or roots music over the years, for the music to be successful it must come from the heart and soul. If it doesn’t, it fails. By successful, I don’t mean it has to sell a million copies. It simply means the artist has to be satisfied with his work. After compiling these five tunes, Mr. King should be very satisfied.

He begins the EP with a strange little love ballad called “Strange Freedom”. I get it though. “There’s a strange freedom in knowing//The one that you love doesn’t love you back”. True statement. It’s the not knowing that holds you prisoner and will drive you insane. At the very least, the knowledge of not having reciprocal love frees us, eventually enabling us to move on to the next heartbreak, or whatever else lies ahead.

Next up is the title cut for the EP, “Take Me Home”. It’s a painful, yet well-crafted tune about sleepless nights and tormented days of lost love, broken hearts, and striving to get back to where you were prior to the broken heart, but the receiver of said love is not on the same page. The confusion, the pain, the hope, the disappointments; it’s all present in this fine tune. “My head is spinning and my hearts a mess/Take me home/But in the meantime/Leave me alone”

The final cut on the EP is very cool tune called “As Closed”. The gentle picking of the banjo, accompanied by piano and organ all compliment each other, gracefully building as we move along through the song, intertwining beautifully with the lyrics. “As closed as my eyes seem/I can tell you’re right there with me/And I’ll hold on to you/Even when the whole world shakes/The world will just have to wait/You’re all I can see/You made everything different/You made everything beautiful.”

Where previous tunes on the record have been about confusion, hopelessness, and wounded hearts, this song is a sharp contrast, bringing the listener messages of hope and the beauty of love found, along with the joy it can bring to us. It is absolutely my favorite song on the EP and was a great way to end this superb treasure. The music here is big, very big. I would be quite amazed if we do not hear a lot more from this exceptional new artist. I could honestly relate to every single tune on the EP.

David Robert King is a very talented singer/songwriter and I truly enjoyed listening to and writing about his fastidiously sensitive music. I definitely will look forward to hearing more from him in the future.

Review by Rod Ames
- Rod Ames of No Depression Magazine (Feb 16, 2010)

Every time musician and singer David Robert King returns to Idaho Falls, he's flooded with memories of the people and places that embody his hometown.

"There's something about where you grow up. There's a tie to the earth and people," King said.

This weekend, he makes the trek from his home in Boise to perform at The Cellar and Vino Rosso.

King spent the early 2000s on the road with his first band, Lystra's Silence, and moved to Boise in 2006, but there's no doubt his hometown saturates his songs, he said.

Last summer, he released a five-song EP called "Take Me Home" that chronicles his experiences with unrequited love against an Idaho Falls backdrop.

Here's what listeners can expect:

'Strange Freedom'

Sound: Distinct "on the road," pre-"Born to Run" Springsteen feel.

Story: "This song was written on tour en route from Los Angeles to Idaho Falls ... with Lystra's Silence. ... I was alone in my (Reno, Nev.) hotel room thinking of the girl I wanted to be with. She was back in Idaho Falls wanting nothing to do with me. The idea behind it is that A) I'm miserable, and B) There's a tiny bit of freedom in that misery, knowing that I will never be with this girl. Happy stuff!"

'Take Me Home'

Sound: A meandering love song with solid, heartfelt lyrics.

Story: "When I sing this song, I can't help but think of my late-night drives heading west on Broadway out of town; it seems like you could drive forever out there and never see much ... perfect for songwriting. I remember being in the parking lot of the Maverik on the corner of Broadway and Bellin Road and the first two lines hit me, 'Midnight came slowly, but morning creeps up around the bend,' and 'As I switch from AM to FM, then back again.' I got a Diet Coke and started my drive ... for the most part the song wrote itself on that drive."

'The Winter'

Sound: Layered vocals and guitar twang with swells and subtleties.

Story: I bought a mail-order Dobro (a guitar with a metal resonator) and wanted to learn to play it. I was sitting in my Chelsea Court apartment on 12th Street and I got the instrument out for the first time. It was super-foreign but really exciting. I started trying to play it, with little knowledge of its mechanics. (This song), like all of the songs, is a tale of unrequited love. The movement between seasons in Idaho Falls is a great deal of the inspiration for the song."

'Somehow Today'

Sound: A female backup vocal (King's wife, Marita) helps tell the story.

Story: "This was written at my apartment that was behind Common Cents on Broadway. It was written about the relationship that almost was; we had some moments at that apartment, and that's the backdrop for the song."

'As Closed'

Sound: Music and lyrics that land somewhere between the style of Bob and Jakob Dylan.

Story: "Once again (a song) about THE girl. I wrote and recorded this song to explain to (her) how I felt. She was working at Johnny Carino's on Hitt Road and I put a rough recording of it on a CD and placed it on her windshield. It didn't seem to have the wooing effect I hoped for (at the time). Now, I'm actually married to that person." - The Post Register, Friday January 29, 2010, By Felcia Muriel

At five tracks and less than twenty-three minutes in length, David King's EP Take Me Home doesn't give itself much time to make an impression, but it'd still be able to leave an excellent one in half that time. From the first song, "Strange Freedom", King shows himself to be a strong lyricist and equally strong, if not stronger, songwriter. Despite the short run time, the EP manages to feature two different yet similarly styled types of songs, beginning with two guitar driven songs and transitioning to songs with more layered pianos and keyboards. Most of Take Me Home is written in 3/4 time, giving many of the tracks a waltz beat and a lyrical rhythm that flows smoothly from track to track.

Sonically, King's music style is very reminiscent of The Wallflowers, particularly on the keyboard led numbers. King's voice and delivery is somewhat akin to Jakob Dylan's too, making the comparison stronger; though King's lyrics are less obtuse and more direct than Dylan's. The lyrics are a significant drawing point to the EP, as evidenced on "Strange Freedom"'s repeated lyric “There's a strange freedom in knowing/the one that you love doesn't love you back”, sung over the song's coda. The subject matter doesn't stray too far from the concepts of love, pining, and heartache, but King can craft some wonderful imagery such as “Was my apartment cold that evening or, did my shoulder and arms feel just right” from "Somehow Today." The piano and guitar meshing together on said song to create a hypnotic repeating quality that sounds similar to Coldplay's "Clocks", with that tone perfectly matching and drawing out the emotions contained within the words. Even the noise of King's hands squeaking along the frets of his guitar adds to the enchanting rhythm.

The title track is the most dynamic of the five songs as it develops from its acoustic guitar base to the keyboard heavy sound that features more on the second half of the EP. The percussion is non-existent to start, lightly kicks in to change the time signature, and eventually develops into booming drum fills that propel the chorus of an otherwise low-key song. This kind of percussion is generally what prevails on most of the songs. Aside from the shuffle beat on "Strange Freedom", king chooses to put the percussion in the background, allowing the full force of his words to carry through.

The remaining songs, "The Winter" and "As Closed" are similarly written in how the verses have very light instrumentation and the choruses very layered sounds. King doesn't create riffs so much as he plays a few repeated notes during the verse that again, allow his voice and words to be the song. Anyone seeking a guitar solo would be hard-pressed to find one throughout the extended player, with the closest thing being the banjo solo on the breakdown of "As Closed". But this is a kind of microcosm to the EP as a whole; there's no one thing or part that truly stands out, instead it all coalesces into a series of powerful arrangements, and exemplary songwriting.

Take Me Home works incredibly well as an EP; it doesn't overstay its welcome and leaves a craving for more afterward. David Robert King is a solid performer, but a stellar songwriter and lyricist. The pleasant arrangements and deep lyrics will appeal to listeners across genres and is a large step-up from the adult contemporary fare of recent years. With all good fortune, the music world can look forward to a full-length recording of King's in the future; but for now, Take Me Home will do just fine.

Review by Heath Andrews
- Heath Andrews

Listener beware: If you are perched precariously on an emotional fence, David Robert King's debut solo album, Take Me Home, will undoubtedly push you right off. In five touching arrangements, his crushed velvet voice is soul-soothing, while his lyrics are agonizingly soul-searching.

As King croons on everything from unrequited love to the eternal dark season of heartache, his spirit comes across as restless and tortured. In a song appropriately titled, "The Winter," King acknowledges "a tall glass of whiskey / and a short glass of pride"—a poignant combination that surely resonates with anyone who has experienced the turmoil of a breakup. In "Somehow Today," he confesses a similar vulnerability which feels so genuine, one can only assume King's inspiration springs from a real romance.

King's vocals are accompanied by a gorgeous assortment of acoustic guitar, drums, piano and bass, all of which add a sort of contained energy that softens the lyrical angst. The gentle instrumentals are technically perfect and the folksy rock-and-roll sound is reminiscent of Carbon Leaf.

Since King is a native Idahoan, it's inevitable that any tour activity surrounding Take Me Home will have him performing around the Treasure Valley with what promises to be a truly enjoyable live performance. In fact, on second thought, don't "beware" at all. Go ahead and plumb the depths of emotion with David Robert King, if you get the chance—it's worth it to let that sweet voice push your heartache away. - Boise Weekly