Singer-songwriter’s solo debut recalls the hey-day of ‘70s L.A. canyon music

After seven years fronting Northstar Session, this Los Angeles singer-songwriter has begun a solo career that favorably echoes the ‘70s pop-rock of Jackson Browne and Bob Welch. The opening “Wasting Time” quickly evokes the former’s “Running on Empty” with its loping tempo, buzzing steel and cascading piano, but it’s Szlachetka’s extraordinary voice and the breadth of his songwriting that are the most arresting elements of this album. The productions are modern and crisp, but exude the warmth of mid-70s L.A.’s canyons, and Szlachetka’s originals reach beyond pop and rock to folk, soul, blues and touches of country.

Szlachetka’s years as the lead singer of a band gave him a great sense of how to fit his voice into an arrangement. Together with his co-producers George Johnsen and Joe Napolitano, he’s assembled a band that augments the guitar, bass and drums with Wurlitzer organ, piano, lap and pedal steel, slide guitar, accordion, harmonium and a few horn and string charts. Wisely, the arrangements are never crowded, and Szlachetka is never overshadowed; Fender Rhodes and baritone sax add soul to “Little Things in Life Can Show You Love,” and the organ and horns  of “I Can’t Look at Your Face” frame Szlachetka’s blue mood.

The relationships in these songs are often combative, but surprisingly free of bitterness, whether pleading for a second chance or simply moving on. Szlachetka is fond of boxing metaphors (“waiting for the bell to go off” and “dodging all the punches”), but he’s even more fond of music. He decries a friend who sold out to (or was burned out by) those who “got their fingers in you when you were young,” provides a view from the road with “You’re Home to Me,” and revels in the magic powers of music in “Carry Me Home.”

The latter provides something of a thesis statement for this album, as Szlachetka explicitly acknowledges the musical influences that have implicitly shaped him. Shaped not just his music; shaped his whole life. This will resonate with those for whom music is more than just background sound, those whose live have their own musical soundtracks, and whose personal chronologies and geographies are inextricably tied to songs, records, shows and bands. Szlachetka’s sentiment is full of heart and respect, and builds a fresh set of songs from roots planted in fertile canyon soil. [©2015 Hyperbolium]

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