Vinyl Kings
Big New Life:
A Palindrome of Love
By Dale McCurry
May 3, 2024
There are good bands and there are good people. Sometimes we get both.
The Vinyl Kings, a top-shelf band of veteran songwriters, players and producers—who first played together as a long-ago Nashville-based cover band named the Del Beatles—are such a band, as evidenced by both the artistry and message of their third and, perhaps, final album, Big New Life.
The culmination of a wave of multiple solo releases during the past several months came with the early April release of “We Are All One,” an intriguing and powerful alloy of rap and anthem that drives home the simple yet elusive idea that all humankind is not only equal, but the same.
The final solo release from Big New Life is reminiscent of the 1969 Plastic Ono Band anti-war classic “Give Peace a Chance” in its bold declaration that it is only artificial boundaries that separate and divide us from one another while challenging us to face the truth of what people have done to each other in the name of “us versus them.”
The Big New Life journey began in January 2023 when the Vinyl Kings—consisting of Larry Lee, Jim Photoglo, Harry Stinson, Josh Leo, and the late Michael Rhodes—released “Smoke Rings for Renee”—written by Photoglo—on the occasion of the passing of the wife of his bandmate, Leo.
The lovely and powerful song—a celebration of a life … and life itself—was the impetus for the new body of work from each of these seasoned singer-songwriters. At the time, Lee described it this way: “We really want to do something positive. Something with a promise of better things to come. All revolving around love.”
Faced with the loss of a loved one, a pandemic, growing division and polarization within the country and the world, these artists did what artists do. They made art— to help heal their own broken hearts and offer to all of us as a salve for challenged souls.
From the beginning to the end of this project, the Vinyl Kings draw on the power of poetry combined with a commitment to social commentary and moral compass prevalent in the music of their youth—neither afraid to call out the wasted and vile energy of hate nor to normalize the power of love for all living things.
In the early days of this millennium, the Vinyl Kings attracted and enamored a following of new fans with the release of their first album A Little Trip. The genius of the record is that the Vinyl Kings managed to create an album of original tunes echoing the evolving sound and feel of the Beatles—neither impression, nor caricature, but a pure, loving homage.
https://www.noteworthymusic.org/reviews/vinyl-kings-a-little-trip/
The Beatles told us the love we receive equals the love we give. Vinyl Kings have proven through decades of service to their art to be a chorus of talented, working musicians writing love songs to the world. Their own last waltz glides through a year-long succession of love songs to their people—to all people who will pause from the daily panic and hear it.
And in the end, Big New Life is a palindrome of love. It reads the same front to back and back to front: “Love one another; celebrate art; savor the moments. …”
Thank you, fellas, for sending us on this little trip.
Learn more about the Vinyl Kings https://vinylkingsband.com/
Dale McCurry
Writer and Editor
Following years as a reporter and editor of a handful of weekly newspapers, Dale McCurry was co-founder and publisher, writer and managing editor of High Notes Magazine on the Western Slope of Colorado and The Wires and the Wood in his native Ozarks. Today, he wears all of those hats for NoteWorthy Music as well.
Contact: Dale@NoteWorthyMusic.org.
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