John Dorsch’s vision for his music has an all-encompassing design that few artists share. His latest release Elevation spans the breadth of fifteen songs that touch on multiple genres such as folk, pop, and rock without ever coming off as a hodgepodge of disparate tunes lacking an overall cohesive theme. The fifteen tracks included on Elevation are bound together by the common thread of Dorsch’s superlative guitar work, ranging from fingerstyle as well as acoustic and rock, and his sole accompaniment. Dorsch’s wife Dani joins him with sympathetic vocal harmonies and creative percussion, including her African Djembe drum playing.
He doesn’t opt for an album of lyrically driven songs. Instrumentals are an important part of Dorsch’s presentation, and he opens the release with one of the best. “Elevation” lives up to its title on the basis of his exquisite and confident guitar playing; the sensitivity he’s able to wring from his fingerstyle technique is one of the key fulcrums upon which the album balances. “Dragonfly” is a poetic love song hinging on symbols, but nonetheless accessible. The language is eloquent while remaining conversational. He underpins the arrangement with the album’s first taste of his electric guitar work, and it supplies melodic adornment that gives the track further shine. The underlying acoustic guitar reveals the song’s origins and chugs away with unerring consistency.
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“You Are the One” is an outright love song free from the poeticized veneer of the earlier “Dragonfly”. Dorsch has a penchant for affecting choruses and this is one of the best examples. It’s filled with further light thanks to his wife’s rich harmonizing. “Seasons” is a layered instrumental that lives up to its billing, as well, without sliding into pretentiousness. It has a wide-open positivity that flows from every musical moment and its quicksilver touch will leave listeners feeling refreshed, as if they have washed themselves clean in pristine mountain water.
“Passage to Perth” explores Dorsch’s storytelling skills with its strong narrative thrust. The harmony vocals are as successful as ever, but there are listeners who feel the arrangement never quite clicks despite the excellent, as ever, musicianship powering the performance. “Compromises” is one of the album’s most mature and reflective songs but sparkles with life thanks to a surprising amount of energy in its arranging and playing. There is some cliched lyrical content, but it’s scattered rather than dragging down the song as a whole. His harmony vocals with his wife Dani are, again, a definite highlight.
The songwriting takes a brooding turn with “Faith in Me”. It’s a sparse tune, in some respects, and occasional whisps of slide guitar emanate from deep within its core. The spartan structuring of the track creates a lot of “space” that has a dramatic final effect on the track. His electric guitar playing has a stronger presence the closer we come to the album’s conclusion. The penultimate track “Patience”, however, finds an effective way of integrating those contributions with a strong acoustic guitar foundation. Elevation is a major work from a musical artist who approaches his work with the enthusiasm of a beginning, terminally inspired, and the skill set of a seasoned veteran.
Chadwick Easton