'American Stories Major Chords' is the third album release by Beau Jennings & The Tigers in five years. As listeners have come to expect from their work it mixes vivid storytelling with accesible and memorable music.
Opening the album is the sombre, ‘Oklahoma Heat’. It’s a stripped back haunting acoustic number that tells the story of the plight of the working class, always striving and pushing to do better as life kicks back. The Blue collar theme is one that Jennings writes well about and runs through the entire album. The loss of a childhood friend inspired Jennings to write the gentle ‘Boston Ave.’. A nostalgic and emotional trip back to his formative years in which Jennings weaves a tale of childhood love and loss. As the song unfolds the listener is given the impression that years later, Jennings is still processing the grief of the loss of his friend.
Listening to Beau Jennings & The Paper Tigers it is easy to make comparisons to the the music of Bruce Springsteen, Chuck Prophet and Lucinda Williams, yet while there are shades of the aforementioned musicians, Jennings ploughs his own furrow with his own distinctive and evocative lyrics and music style.
The jaunty harmonica filled ‘Broken Angel’ paints a vivid picture of the good times that Jennings spent living in the city of Brooklyn. Underpinned by some lovely organ it also features Jennings first recorded guitar solo on a Paper Tigers Album. The fuzzy guitars of ‘Rubberburn’ provide the backdrop to a rocker inspired by a college band that Jennings’s wife played in with three other females.
Aside from making great music, Jennings is a master songwriter. He nails it when it comes to growing up in a small town and themes of every day life. He doesn’t preach or make grandiose statements, concentrating instead on the characters within his songs.
‘American Stories Major Chords’ is an album full of beautifully crafted songs that reach into the heart of the listener as they are led into a vivid landscape full of relatable characters and situations.