Right Click – Right Click #2

Right Click – Right Click #2 – EP Review

The boys (and Mare!) are back in town.

I mean, you gotta appreciate the straight honey comin’ off of those guitar strings as “Delta” opens up the sequel record for Right Click.  As the vocals kick in, it starts out with a quaintness you’d find in something like James Taylor’s music before you start to slide into something a little more akin to the harmonies you’d find in something like Crosby, Stills, and Nash.  I’ve probably made similar comments about this crew and their sound before.  The band is filled with musicians that have taken more than a few trips around the block in their time, so it’s no real surprise that what you’re hearing has a throwback sound to it, nor that it has such a high standard for the production you’ll hear either.  These are staple elements of the old-school, and as far as I’ve ever known, Right Click fully embraces the values and vision for music that brought them to where they are.  Many of these members have been in countless bands, some are still touring to this day, some are hired studio aces now, and others simply never lost their passion for making great music.  In any event, you probably get what I’m getting at – you’ll listen to a song like “Delta” and the tracks to follow, and you’ll notice the relentless professionalism at work.  It’s music made by a generation of talents that really prided themselves on quality sound, and so you’ll find that ingredient present & accounted for in every moment along the way.  Is a track like “Delta” in lockstep with the rest of what’s out there today?  I’m sure you can already conclude that no, it’s not – but it’s not music that’s aimed towards being that, so much as it’s music designed to commemorate that special sound, time, and era that they grew up with themselves.  It certainly suits them well, and I have it on good authority that there are still a TON of people walking the earth that came from the same time in music’s history that they did…and they’ll absolutely love what they hear in “Delta.”  Whether you’d compare it to CSN or The Eagles or whatever doesn’t really matter in anything else other than trying to decide what you might wanna listen to next…the music Right Click is making possesses that same kind of warmth & inviting sound.  It’s art without directly stating that it’s art, you know what I mean?  The folks that get what Right Click is creating will genuinely be overjoyed at finding something that will easily remind them of the past and the music they grew up on, right here in the present.  So…sure…the Top 40 and mainstream crowd might not be as jazzed about it, but that’s okay – last time I checked, the world has more music in whatever style you like than you’ll be able to listen to in the course of one lifetime.  Music like what Right Click is making is the sound of what ties one generation to the next – and it’s important.  “Delta” is an audible blueprint for the songwriters to come…artists can learn from tunes like these, while the rest of us can unwind and relax as we listen to its beautifully mellow vibes.  Lo & behold – I’ve just checked my notes, and apparently “Delta” IS actually an old CSN song…so I guess that settles the argument of what it sounds like – at least you know that they come by the comparison honestly.

As “Surrender” came on with a slightly more upbeat energy contrasting with more direct lyricism as it began, I really liked the shift that this song quickly took from the darkness and into the light.  The vocals of Brian Wooten are soundin’ fantastic here…raspy when he wants to be, crystal clear when the melody calls for it, and most importantly, we can feel the strong connection he has to the music surrounding him.  Which makes sense – reading the scattered notes across my dusty desk lit by a dim candlelight, I can see that “Surrender” is written directly about his wife, making this ultimately a love song of sorts…or sort of a song about loving…you get the idea – it’s actually a really sweet tune, and I suspect it’ll have no problem finding listeners that’ll respond positively to this track.  It’s all about finding that person that can make the rest of life brighter, simply by being around you.  If you were ever lucky enough to find that for yourself, like Brian clearly has, believe me when I tell ya, it makes living life in this valley of malls we’ve created on this floating rock we call home, so much better than you could have ever possibly thought.  In terms of balance and accessibility, “Surrender” is likely right up there with the best tracks on Right Click #2, glowing with universal sound that speaks to the hearts and minds of everyone listening.

“Awake At Night” might be one of my personal favorites as far as this album is concerned.  One of the most personally revealing songs on the album, singer Sid Hagan wrote this about his twin sons and how he’s affected by the thought of what might happen to them after he’s gone, one day in the hopefully distant future.  Whatever issues or situations afflict us, you’ve probably experienced being “Awake At Night” alone with your thoughts and feelings too, right?  It ain’t always an easy time to navigate your way through – take it from one who knows.  Well…I sort of know; I might have become an insomniac and workaholic for the sole purpose of avoiding being “Awake At Night” trapped in the loop of my own thoughts, opting to trade that for trying to push them away like they’re never gonna come roaring back.  Instead of staring at the ceiling waiting to fall asleep amidst a never-ending sea of thoughts swirling around, I choose to run myself to the point of pure exhaustion, where the next ounce of sleep I get isn’t so much something that may or may not happen, as much as it becomes an outright necessity.  Still, it’s not like I don’t get where Sid is coming from…I think that we all do.  I think we all get naturally overwhelmed in thinking about what the next generation we leave behind will have to face and wish that we could help them through it…but I think we also have to have some faith in the fact that as a species, we’ve managed to overcome so much and carry on.  Sid’s twin boys have always had an excellent role model to look up to, and that will never change whether or not Hagan has hit his expiry date.  It’s perfectly natural to wonder what will come next though, and I think we all become a little more fearful as time goes on too.  “Awake At Night” really encapsulates what so many of us go through in our thoughts and emotions, holding the mirror back up to us, reflecting the feelings that make us all anxious about the future.  For what it’s worth, Sid’s own parents likely went through this too…and Sid’s parent’s parents, on and on.  It doesn’t make the feelings any less valid or any less confusing to reconcile with, but there is some comfort to be had in knowing that if he was standing on his own two feet to sing that song, that he beat the same odds he’s singing about being concerned with in living his own life.  I love tunes like “Awake At Night” that end up getting us to examine our own lives internally while we listen to the experiences someone else is going through…it makes the world feel a little less lonely, even in instances like this where isolation & the unknown are big factors in how a song like this gets written.

Right Click describes “Bittersweet” as “another Nashville twinged song,” and I reckon they ain’t wrong about that.  To be truthful with ya, a lot of what you’ll hear on this record does possess that same kind of sound to it, which isn’t an uncommon trait amongst the more dedicated and devoted musicians and songwriters out there in this world of ours.  Sometimes you can hear the writing more than you can feel it, you know what I mean?  In my line of work, where I hear someone playin’ somethin’ outta Nashville every second week, my main concern is that the place can often take the uniqueness out of an artist and replace that with a songwriter’s mindset that is more focused on being perfect than being real.  And if you’re not too careful, that place can eat up what made you special in the first place, only to spit you back out as a carbon copy of just about everything else in the mainstream scene…I’ve seen and heard it happen countless times at this point in my career.  If you’re resilient though, and you go there to really dig into what makes you special and your music yours, then you can push back on changing things too much & retain your identity…which is really what listening to “Bittersweet” sounds like to me.  I can hear the influence of Nashville per se, but not the potential dominance of it – you feel me?  And that’s the combo I like personally.  Obviously the whole city is a music mecca for a reason & there are professional to be found every which way you turn your head…but you have to be equally aware of the promoters and sharks that would just as soon have you turn right into someone or something you’re not.  At this point in their careers as individuals, the band mates of Right Click know what they want to get out of their material and their sound, and they keep that vision intact on “Bittersweet.”  With its gentle and delicate demeanor in the music contrasted brilliantly by the strength in the vocals and lyricism, this song is essentially the harmony of yin and yang together as one.  That’s what “Bittersweet” is, ain’t it?  The good and the bad…the ups and the downs…the peaks and the valleys…we need that balance in life, and it’d be virtually impossible to appreciate one of those halves without the other, you feel me?  It’s not only well conceived, but it’s just as well executed…fans of great performances/songwriting will love this song.  Whether it comes directly from Nashville, or just has the city’s essence, Right Click is what makes it special, and together they’ve found the right way to approach this tune to bring out its max potential.

Their collaborative spirit continues to fuel the material found on Right Click #2.  Mare Carmody, who just sang “Bittersweet” so very well for ya, also sings “Carry Me With You,” which she wrote about one of the helpers she encountered in the course of her life.  Written about an elderly lady that was in the same apartment complex that she lived in, this amazing human being used to look out for Mare…the kind of caring and compassionate neighbor that we all wish we lived nearby to.  I was always told to ‘look for the helpers’ in life, and that they’re always around…seems to me like Mare was lucky enough to track down an angel of her own.  While it’s probably fair to say this plays a little more like a deep cut on this album, at least until it reaches full strength in its chorus to deliver a more universal vibe, there’s never any shame in creating content that people will have to come back to time and again to appreciate in full, as opposed to quick and easy to digest hooks that immediately grab our attention.  For those out there that have no qualms about getting right into the story behind a song, then “Carry Me With You” will likely be one of your favorites from the record…the focus is really on the lyrics and details in this particular cut.  As for the rest…c’mon y’all – what’d I tell you right from the get-go here?  Right Click is a band filled with seasoned veterans of the same music scene you love and share together with them, so of course it sounds good!  “Carry Me With You” isn’t going to be the single from Right Click #2, but that form of measurement is by no means what dictates a quality tune or a great experience in listening.

Sid wrote “So Many Miles” in a reflective state of mind, thinking about all the wonderful people he’s come to know throughout the years and how long the journey of life can be.  “So many miles brought me to you” is one of my favorite lines on the whole album…I just think it’s insightful, and accurate.  When you consider how many dominoes had to fall in just the right direction for you to be in the position to do WHATEVER it is that comes next…I mean…it’s ASTOUNDING to think about, ain’t it?  Hagan’s appreciative of every mile he’s put into his journey, and as a result, I think he’s come out with a sweet & tributary track in “So Many Miles” that’s basically a complete and total expression of gratitude.  I love the tone of the guitars in here from Brian Wooten…really dig the keys in the mix here too…and I really like the laidback way this song struts along with such an effortless charm.  The amount of EFFORT it takes to make something SEEM or SOUND effortless, is staggering mind you…so don’t get it twisted – just because something like “So Many Miles” feels like it comes completely naturally to this band, doesn’t mean that’s always the case.  Even in the instances where things simply snap together as quickly as you could ever conceive, that’s still usually the sound of years & years of preparation finally meeting opportunity.  The most I might concede to ya is that this tune is a little rhymey for my taste in the main hooks of the chorus, but the sentiment, the message, and the spirit of this song carries it to a full victory.  If you haven’t traveled “So Many Miles” in your own life yet, rest assured that you likely will, and as the days go by, a song like this one here from Right Click will gradually make more and more sense to ya.

Now…I’m told that “It Just Ain’t Right” is a Blues song…and I’m not really here to dispute that, because I do get where they’re coming from…but I’d probably tell ya that the Blues is more of an accent to the sound than you’d normally associate with something in the genre, making it more of a hybrid overall.  It possesses a lot of similar fundamentals for sure…but it’s like, either you consider songs like “Black Velvet” by Alannah Myles to be Blues as well, or you don’t.  It’s more of a rhythm thing than it is a Blues thing as we’ve typically come to know it, sound-wise.  But to be fair, that’s what real R&B used to be as well – complements of each other aspect, and of course, practically none of modern-day R&B has what made R&B comprised of R&B back in the day, so a song like “It Just Ain’t Right” can’t be described as that either.  I digress…both now, and a lot in general (thanks for asking).  Regardless of how you’d want to categorize it yourself, I think we’d all agree that it sounds absolutely stellar.  Great personality in the musicianship, the vocals are solid, the bass-lines are essential stuff…it’s a highly enjoyable tune, and chances are, another you’ll find yourself feeling like you agree with on a lyrical level.  With Sid at the helm to sing it, Hagan gives it kind of Neil Young-esque edge to its Blues-influenced sound, and it once again feels like the band found the right way to approach the material when it was time to push record.

As to where they go from here…time will tell.  What you heard on “Delta” at the start of Right Click #2 is unfortunately guitarist Marvin Taylor’s potentially last guitar parts as he’s currently locked in a battle with Parkinson’s disease, Brian went through his own surgical procedures as of late, Sid’s got his own heart complications, and the good lord knows none of the rest of us are gettin’ any younger either.  They have all had their fun and adventures in life, but as well all know, Father Time remains undefeated.  Doesn’t mean they don’t still have plenty more time ahead of them – hopefully they do.  As far as I’ve heard, Marvin is remaining with the band as a consultant – I love hearing about such devotion to a band and such loyalty from its members…that’s inspiring stuff.  If you had to judge from what you’ll hear on Right Click #2, you’d swear they’ve still got “So Many Miles” to go…music is an audible vitamin that has everything we need to keep us young, and we’re lucky to have it document the amazing lives out there like Wooten, Taylor, Hagan, and Carmody so that we can learn from them, and turn up what they have to say to us all.  Right Click is a band of true professionals, and this sequel is a stellar part of their legacy.

Find more music by Right Click and Sid Hagan at Bandcamp here:  https://sidhagan.bandcamp.com

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