Wilmington pics and review

Check out this review we got from a local paper here in Wilmington. Thanks so much Bootleg Magazine


There was an illustration many years ago depicting a classroom with Bob Dylan in the front row and behind him sat a young Bruce Springsteen looking over his shoulder as if copying Dylan’s test answers. Behind Springsteen sat a spry John Mellencamp doing the same thing to Bruce. The illustration did much to explain the notion that a singer songwriter can be popular and sing of substance. Dylan begat many others, such as Tom Petty and Lucinda Williams. Brooklyn’s Chris Cubeta could be drawn into that classroom illustration if it were done today. Cubeta sings about life won and lost and the hearty day to day existence of it all on his second release, Faithful. Lyrics remark on common living much as Springsteen and Mellencamp did without slipping into the jaded regions of pop or corny choruses. Writing from the gut, and the heart, is something left to the singer songwriters at the moment, a way of making music that’s been lost to the backyard of popular music. One has to search for this type of clarity, this soulfulness. Eschewing stereotypes is not an easy thing to do these days. But Cubeta delivers a genuine record with passionate vocals that ache and sooth without overselling it. Faithful is an album rich in American heart and substance, dripping with working man earnestness and heartfelt vitality. It’s at once romantic and honest while pleasantly rugged. Cubeta sings of fondness for substance such as the best way to hear a song is on the radio (‘Me and the Radio’) that is a close cousin to ‘Summer of ‘69’. Lyrically he paints pictures of waitresses and talking heads that force many to seek solitude (‘Better Alone’) and broken souls that still want to mend only to shine again. The minor details drive the lyrics, building something even more resonant. For example, the smell of coffee and that hardwood shine, on ‘Clementine,’ a beautiful and sad lament about leaving someone behind after so many years together. There’s a lot of distance on this record, between individuals and between the self. ‘Downtime Dead’ is an achingly tender number that is short but exhibits self imposed loneliness. Cubeta is a soulful and modern interpretation of the aforementioned singer songwriters. He is rugged and truthful without having to go the route of making a record that has to suffer the fate of being merely a critic’s darling. To label Cubeta’s music pop-rock is frankly a disservice given the moniker denotes something disposable and synthetic. Faithful’s tracks are anything but sugar morsels for the cheap ear. It’s rock and roll in the singer songwriter vein.
Cubeta’s vocals are strong, recalling Kyf Brewer from early nineties rock band Company of Wolves and the undertones of Springsteen. Cubeta delivers middle American rock and roll without being overly cliché or territorial. Faithful is a record that will find its way into your foot, making it stomp and the insides that make you want to dance. –Brian Tucker