Last week I was persuaded to visit Nighttown, Cleveland’s finest jazz dining nite club establishment, and attend local legendary troubadour Alex Bevan’s CD release.  His new record I Have No Wings was produced by former Clevelander Holly Gleason, now a Nashville based writer and publicist. She explained that the new album was magical and that Alex had written songs that hearken back to the days of his Grand River Lullaby record.

For some, you may have thought Bevan’s work has eroded over time. But I’m here to tell you that the new album is the real deal.  Once again, Bevan is writing brilliant songs with personal experiences of life, loss, and tears.  Songs that offer hope during tough times and his view of the everyday world most of us persevere in. With lots of encouragement and push from his producer, whom also was touched by Alex’s songwriting at an early age besides this writer, he stretched and continued to pen songs until the 14 best ones were finally deemed ready to put on the final product.

Recorded at Summa Recording and engineered by Paul Hamann, Bevan plays his acoustic Martin guitar with that unique style throughout.  He adds a Sears 11/16 socket wrench on “Rain Into New Orleans” that offers a beautiful instrumental bridge.  You can close your eyes and let the narrator drive for a while during “Aint the Country Like That” and laugh out loud when he breaks into the storytelling “Dr. Boom”. The inspirational “A Way To Make It There” is a song about losing a close friend and having a hard time letting go. It was recorded ironically the night when the great Levon Helmpassed away.  Everyone these days can relate to the biorapsical “Gas Can” and fall in love with the gorgeous “”Strong is What You Do”.  One of the very last songs written for the new album is the up-tempo and uplifting song “Driving Back To Cleveland” which is another postcard from Bevan’s journey through life put to music.

Ask your local music store if they have the new Bevan CD or you can order it via Alex’s website at http://alexbevan.com.  The advice from this particular rodeo rider is to check out the performance schedule on Alex Bevan’s web page and find a time to hear some of the new songs performed live.  There you can pick up a copy of the new CD, have it personally autographed by the singer/songwriter, then listen to them again in the car on the drive home.  You can thank me later by leaving a comment ;-).