The title of this compelling album 27 is significant. Not only is this the age of M. Lockwood Porter himself, it is the age at which the following musicians died: Cobain; Hendrix; Jones, Joplin, Morrison, Winehouse… and the list goes on.
But Porter does not dwell on this. Rather, he pays tribute to Chris Bell, Big Star’s guitarist and vocalist who died in a car accident at the same age. If you go back to 1972 and listen to “13,” a teenage romance with a younger Bell intoning “Rock and Roll is here to stay It ain’t better to burn out/Than fade away.”
With all Bell’s songs there is the realisation how distinctive a singer and song writer he was and that in six years he would be dead. And there you have the direct link to the second track on…
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…Porter’s album with the appreciation of “the beauty in your music/Shows that you got what it takes.” Porter’ understanding of the concept does not consist of eulogizing and merely mentioning Paul Westerberg of The Replacements who has also paid heed to Bell. He takes the idea, and places it amid an album that not only remembers but points to connections. For instance, while Porter is originally from Oklahoma, he now is based in California and this album was recorded in San Francisco’s Hyde Studio C where albums such as CCR’s “Cosmo’s Factory”, Grateful Dead’s “American Beauty, and CSNY’s “Deja Vu” were recorded. Hardly surprising then, the echoes of Laurel Canyon in the sixties and seventies on tracks such as “Restless” and “You only talk about your band”, up tempo and lasting in flavour. It’s there in the phraseology: “There’s a cool yellow moon./ I see you rising./ It ain’t surprising.” The album’s centrepiece is the ballad “Mountains.” Here it’s epitomised Porter’s ability to see beyond 27 and make a statement about his musical future. This song pulls all of these thoughts about life together. It starts with one strum that sounds like a heartbeat. “When I was young my father said / that faith could move a mountain. / Now there’s mountains as far as I can see.” His lyrics are striking as are the piano, the tasteful percussion, and an earnest guitar line. All this fills out the heart-felt tune and leads stunningly towards an amazing and shocking conclusion: “And as I stare across the vast expanse / I can hear my father shouting / but mountains are all that I can see.”