Larry Ludwick - Not So Simple (Final)

Hear The Track Here

See, ain't that typical? Just when you thought you had a reviewer you could trust, he outright-flat-out lies to you IN PUBLIC! What, o most honourable reader, am I on about? Remember my rant in an earlier review of Denyl's The Storm collab with Mr Puddy Tat? (Ed: I think he means Larry Ludwick) In that review I wrote the following because - like me - you may wonder why Larry manages to get more than one review a month. 'I swear on my honour that he will NOT appear in any other review this month' I boldy declared, as if I had any say in the matter. The problem is that Larry is a busy guy, he does tend to pop up everywhere. Last time we saw him in his 'normal' guise was with Farewell - A Poem (April 2011). A month, I might add, when he featured in no less than three different tracks.

This is not a problem for those who like his work, as I do, but I do understand that Larry should be seen as a bit of acquired taste - like a lot of home produced musicians. There's something about making music this way that leads to some very unconventional things. I guess because we have the time, the patience and the will to succeed without the restraints of costs and logistics that bedevil the real world industry. It allows us, in short to be much more creative, which in many will sound strange until you get used to it. I am so used to Larry's music I could call it Grandma and take it it's cocoa of a night time. So for people like me, comfortable with Larry's changing musical moods, Not So Simple is typical Ludwick fayre.

I guess the closest musical comparison to Larry would be Leonard Cohen, although that really does neither of them justice. For my money, this style of spoken/sung lyric has always been a bit of narrow taste, but Larry is one I would definitely say it works for. Not so simple is musically very simple, unadorned and pure, a mere tapestry to rest the words on, picked out by a solo piano recorded extremely tastefully. Those words are the real meat and potatoes of this track IMHO, and a Ludwick tradition I have to come to like more and more. There is also a very effective double tracking of vocals that is either real or harmonised I haven't heard from this musician before. Could that mean he got a new toy?? Damn, you know what that means, don't you? Yes, more tracks :)

Simple! Highly Recommended piano ballad.