I attended Sam Payne and Cherie Call's recent concert at the American Fork Amphitheater and wanted to give a report on Sam since I've just lately become a fan of his work. In fact, it was just a year ago at the same venue I purchased my first Sam Payne cd, the live album titled "Father to Son" at the recommendation of a friend. Prior to that I knew of him through his contribution to the album and production called "The Ghosts of Gardner Village", Clive Romney's brain child. I loved that so much I decided I needed to look more completely into his stuff. I'd been just slightly aware of him before that as a folk singer that incorporated scatting into his work. I always thought that strange, but the more you listen to him, the more it fits. He has a jazzy side to him, so what once seemed a strange fusion becomes an interesting side to a multi-faceted artist. The more you get to know him, the more you realize how versatile he is. It's fun to watch him gig with Cherie Call. He's a great back up artist as well as a front man. Watching him accompany Cherie with his Melodica is especially interesting. That's a lung powered key board instrument you don't often see, in fact I can't recall ever seeing one played before. Melodicas are made by Hohner, the same company that makes. harmonicas. Anyway, Sam and Cherie are great together, both duetting and backing one another. I hope they put out a joint album sometime soon. They've been doing a lot of gigging together lately, so it might just happen.
The before mentioned album "Father to Son" features Sam the story teller. Many of the songs reflect his Mormon and pioneer heritage. All represent observations of life translated into story form. No one does it better than Sam. Each song is preceded by a track of patter where Sam gives the background to the song. This works well if you play the cd normally but doesn't work out if you load the album to an mp3 player and use shuffle as I do. So be warned, don't load the patter tracks to your Ipod. They don't work out of context! The whole album is great and represents both his folky and jazzy persona and while you can relate to the Mormon aspect of some of the references if that's your persuasion, you don't need to be Mormon to enjoy the album. It's really about life and the struggles we all go through as we walk this earth. My favorite song is "Baby Echo". It describes the birth of a tiny baby girl to the Squires family of the Martin handcart company of Mormon pioneers. The struggles of that group are well documented. She was born in Echo Canyon on the Mormon trail to Salt Lake City during the winter of 1856. Echo Canyon is on the present-day route I-80 takes from Utah to Wyoming. I recently travelled that canyon going to visit my daughter's family in Colorado. Sam's song was indelibly impressed on my mind as I traversed that beautiful place. Sam has a way of capturing the heart of the experiences he describes. I highly recommend this album!
