Wayne Lavallee [Our Pick]

Artist—Wayne Lavallee
Song—Trail of Tears
Album—Trail of Tears
Written by—Wayne Lavallee
Label—Independent

Like each of Wayne Lavallee’s album releases, Trail Of Tears leads with the strongest song musically though few songs on this outing could be considered weak. Wayne’s new CD is a bit more somber than his first two releases but it also shows a maturing as an artist from subject matter and most certainly in the music layering in each song. Wayne continues to mix traditional Aboriginal rhythms with his folk, roots, rock music style and each song builds up to a variety of musical climaxes as they develop. Wayne has no fear in using a variety of musical instrumentation, as his rhythm guitar is accentuated by tasteful use of banjos, fiddle and even a trumpet. All this lends itself to an original rich sound.

This is one of those CDs where the songs are strong enough to stand on their own, but is best listened to in its entirety.  Better yet, for a serious listen, this is a good album to tune into with headphones. Wayne’s high octave voice, the likes of mainstream singers like Geddy Lee of Rush or Jon Anderson of Yes, is singularly unique and he relays his lyrics in a way that communicates the emotions of both the words and the melodies. Of the ten songs on the CD, Wayne writes all but two.  He proves he is a more than competent song writer as well as performer, and the two cover songs — Codine by Buffy Saint Marie and Bob Marley’s Buffalo Soldier — are done in such a way that if the listener didn’t know the cover songs, you’d have thought they were originals. Whether competing with other Aboriginal or mainstream artists, this cd can hold its own as a quality music production that is worth the praise from listeners and critics both.
Review by K. Kanten