Album Review: Sky Smeed - Leaving Again
“Leaving Again” by Sky Smeed blends tender hearted lyrics and music with comical stories telling about his experiences as a traveling musician. As a fellow musician and traveler myself, I related to this album quite a bit and found myself with tears in my eyes by the time I reached the last track.
He begins the album with the title track which was my personal favorite “Leaving Again” that has electric guitar finger picking and soft, sweet vocals talking about saying goodbye to his darling and hitting the road. The song’s groove picks up with drums as he describes a picture of walking along a levy hand in hand. The last line of the song seems like a comparison to himself as he describes a ramblin’ locomotive never settling down. A beautiful harmonica solo takes us out of this dreamy sounding song.
Track two, “Already Miss You So Bad” was catchy and upbeat with lots of backup harmonies and reminded me of some of John Mayer’s lesser known country albums. The song talks about missing his darling even though he’s only been gone for a day and a half and describes a lonely hotel room where he can hear a couple next door making love.
It would be hard to release an album in this day and age without addressing the “hate” we all experience and track three does just that. Sky’s lyrics in this song called “Learn to be Mean” portray the message of showing peace and kindness without saying which side is to blame and leaves us with a call to action in the third verse: “This is still the country my grandfather fought to save. Left it with us, and he left us with trust that we’d stand up for what’s right and be brave.”
“North Shore Trail” is a light hearted song that had me laughing out loud from the lyrics especially the line “When my feet get blisters and my nipples start to bleed”. Track 7 is blues rock song that portrays the rush and excitement of playing live for an audience with rocking guitar solos throughout. The final track on the album “Without Music” was the song that brought tears to my eyes as I realized the concept behind the whole album. The hook sings “without music I wouldn’t have anything”. A feeling that all music lovers and musicians probably understand. Sky brings the focus back to his now wife saying, “we fell in time and I gave her a wedding ring”. A sweet metaphor for love and music and timing all going hand in hand.
