Crosby Loggins and The Light, We All Go Home

I had the pleasure of hearing Crosby Loggins open for Joe Bonamassa at the Stafford Centre in the Houston area back in October 2007. That pleasure was only further enhanced by my first spin of his debut CD, We All Go Home.

Singer-songwriter/guitarist Loggins has joined forces with a cherry-picked ensemble of closely associated musician friends, rounding out the current lineup of his backing band, The Light, featuring Paul Cartwright (violin, mandolin, vocals), Jesse Siebenberg (guitars, lap steel, vocals), Dennis Hamm (keyboards), Jarred Pope (drums, percussion), and Forrestt Williams (bass). In addition to this musically well-versed cast of players, all of whom are seasoned and multi-talented in their own right, Loggins also inherently draws upon his own experiences formed through contacts made throughout his earlier life growing up in the family of music-legend father, Kenny Loggins. Now, as one might guess, such associations usually demand some pretty high expectations. Well, the proof is always in the pudding…and to my mind, Crosby Loggins has certainly delivered the goods with this 12-song first gesture.

Before I could even start to properly delve into the artistic aspects of the album, I was immediately struck by the sheer quality of the recording. Recording Engineer Jason Mariani did an incredible job here, creating a separation ratio mix and atmospheric imagery that is nothing short of superb. While this is always important, even with harder rock content, it’s downright critical with projects that include lighter fare coming out of the acoustic-based adult alternative/contemporary arena. The resulting package is indeed outstanding, even by Nashville standards. Very clean, smart, and beautiful. (Get the headphones out, y’all.)

Loggins himself displays a genuine penchant for soulful penmanship and creatively wraps his thoughts around adept arrangements and styles. The music saunters, trots, gallops, and runs like the wind at all the right moments. He injects moderate rock beats, folk/bluegrass hues, and moody acoustic rakes into just the perfect spots within the collection. The song list is thoughtfully laid-out, and every tune is performed with the optimum of either accent or finesse for each instance. Though most of the album consists of simply soft-to-moderate rock pieces, Loggins also crosses many boundaries into other genre fields, as well.

There’s plenty of subtle multi-instrument blends here, too, and the fairly consistent inclusion of violin consecutively fuels various rounds of differing styles, ranging from quasi-country/folk sounds to those of a lighter-sided, electro-classical Kansas or a delicately-twirling It’s A Beautiful Day. Overall, I’d have to tap Jude Cole as the predominant candidate for a comparison artist, even though there’s plenty of Jackson Browne, James Taylor, perhaps Tom Petty via The Wallflowers, and many other influences detected within the album’s thick digest of divergent material.

The first two songs out of the gate, “Good Enough” and “Always Catching Up,” are both catchy, well-crafted pieces, and probably the best examples of Loggin’s own unadulterated musical signature. On “Rocks To Sand,” you’ll hear many of the aforementioned elements come together, set to Loggins’ falsetto-stretching vocals. “Wanna Be You” offers a highly-syncopated, veritable megalopolis of styles, from a funk intro to a violin solo set amidst blue-eyed soul strains. Close to dead-center is placed the tempo summit of the list, “March On, America,” a voice-in-the-wilderness patriotic statement set to a slowly-building hot rocker of a song.

One of my favorites is “Here She Comes,” with its slight bow toward pop and satisfyingly-melodic vocal harmonies, somewhat reminiscent of Seals & Crofts. Later there’s the hooky and passionate Jackson Browne-reflecting “Angel Of Mercy,” which bears the feminine touch of the collaborating pen of Loggins’ own sister, Bela. The CD closes with the title track and “Same Old Song (La, La, La),” both excellent renditions hinting at bluesy-soft, fairly stripped-down James Taylor-inspired inducements.

Yes, Loggins’ mama does dance and his daddy does rock n’ roll, and the younger Loggins seems to have succinctly applied this rich heritage toward his own openly honest, no-limitations, generation-crossing brand of music. Although I sadly don’t see this album absolutely tearing up the charts any time soon, it’s still a very eloquent and confident first step for a band that’s being steered by an artist that apparently has a great deal going on for himself. Crosby Loggins obviously has very little trouble making great music just on his own steam alone, and I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to see even greater things coming from his corner in the near future.