Hailing from Huntsville, Alabama, singer/songwriter Randy Forte pays homage to the musical stylings of his hometown with his newest album Chas Randall. During Forte’s childhood in the sixties, Blues, Folk, Country, and Gospel dominated the music industry. Heavily influenced by these genres, Forte set out to make an album that melded these styles together, while injecting a healthy dose of his brand of musical flavor. What resulted is a collection of tracks that explore themes of love, life, loss, heartbreak, empowerment, and faith. Forte proves his songwriting versatility with tracks like “Picnic On The River Kind Of Days,” a song with evident blues influences, and then mixing things up with the pure southern rock song, “Cross The Mississippi.” The eleven songs spanning just over thirty-five minutes traverse the soundscape of the south during the sixties and seventies.
“Picnic On The River Kind Of Days” is a hip-swaying bluesy track that is about the narrator recalling a past lover and their sweet times together that ultimately didn’t last. The fond remembrance of their relationship and the heartbreak followed after the abrupt ending builds into an emotionally charged blues guitar solo that paints a picture with sound like only the blues can. The remarkable number is a standout track on the album and is a wonderful example of Forte’s versatility.
The first song on the album, “Six Beers Away,” is another song about heartache, but instead of singing the blues, Forte adopts a tone that more resembles a country ballad. It’s less fond remembrance, and more melancholy. The track is about the narrator coping with the bitterness of heartbreak, instead of recalling the emotion of the moment. The pain of the split is fresh, saying that he is, “six beers away from crying over you.” The song ends with the narrator coming to terms with the loss of love, and facing the facts, admitting to himself that it’s time to move on. The song perfectly personifies Forte’s Alabamian roots.
Kicking things up a notch, the final track of the collection, “Cross The Mississippi,” leaves the love stories behind and trades the somber stylings for an upbeat and hard-hitting southern rock anthem. It’s about not letting life keep you down, never giving up, never surrendering, and to keep on keepin’ on. It’s a motivating song that rounds out the sound of the album. While sonically, southern rock greatly influenced the song, there are also gospel undertones to the track, exploring several religious themes throughout the three minutes and forty-two seconds.
Tapping the talent of multiple experienced and infinitely talented musicians such as Marcia Ramirez, Adam Ollendorff, and Gary Burnette, Forte set out to pay homage to the sounds of his childhood with his fourth full-length release and achieved his goal in spades. The eleven songs on the album blur the lines of southern rock, gospel, blues, and so much more. Mixed by Mark Rubel and mastered by Jonathan Pines, “Chas Randall,” is a showcase of Forte’s musical mastery and flexibility as an artist.
They say nostalgia makes you view the things you hold dear through rose-colored lenses, but Forte’s love for the music that influenced him throughout his youth made for an auditory treat. While the themes the music touches upon are quite cliche for the genres Forte channeled, they hit home as hard as ever thanks to his versatility as an artist due to having such an eclectic musical background. Refusing to be pigeonholed into one genre, Forte transcends the musical plain of his childhood with each song on Chas Randall.
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