Audio and Video Clips
"Runaway Train"
The Evansville Transit Authority performs "Runaway Train" from Kyle's album Faded Colors in Darkened Skies on the WCAX News in 2016.
"a way to say goodbye"
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Interview with Nate Alberts at NCCRClick the link above to hear Kyle's interview with Nate Alberts at North Country Community Radio on June 8th, 2017. They discuss the new album, "Faded Colors in Darkened Skies," as well as how Kyle got started playing music and lots of other musical adventures.
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ETA performs "A Way to Say Goodbye" from their self-titled album
at the 2016 Grand Point North Festival in Burlington, VT.
at the 2016 Grand Point North Festival in Burlington, VT.
ALBUM REVIEWS
Review of "Faded Colors in Darkened Skies" by Dan Bolles of Seven Days. (Independent newspaper, Burlington VT) Vermont has long been a bastion for twang. From folk and bluegrass to rockabilly and country, mountain music is as much a part of our denim-patched cultural fabric as dairy farms and progressive politics. But in recent years, one particular strain of the ever-nebulous Americana idiom has seemingly gone missing: melodic alt-country. That trend is at least partially because, after experiencing a boom in the early to mid-2000s, the pop-minded country/rock hybrid has somewhat faded in the larger consciousness. But good songwriters with a grasp of both genres' fundamentals and an ear for sticky melodies will always find an audience. For example, Derby-based tunesmith Kyle Chadburn. Chadburn is likely best known as a founding member of Northeast Kingdom rockers Evansville Transit Authority. But on his debut solo album, Faded Colors in Darkened Skies, the guitarist reveals a more nuanced and ambitious side — not to mention an affinity for the likes of alt-country darlings the Jayhawks, Nickel Creek, and early Wilco and/or Son Volt. A cynic might suggest that Chadburn's freshman outing comes about a decade late. That's not to say his sound is necessarily dated — twangy songs about heartache are effectively timeless. But his particular brand of alt-country probably would have found more eager ears in 2007 than 2017. Still, Chadburn's music plays well in any era. Faded Colors opens with "Ferris Wheel." Recalling early Old Crow Medicine Show, it's a nostalgic, mid-tempo tune colored by lilting fiddle, ringing guitar and a heaving backbeat. Chadburn sings with a pleasant, easy tenor rasp that recalls a young John Mellencamp or perhaps Bryan Adams. Chadburn guns the throttle on "A Long Hard Ride" with a searing guitar solo and a series of angst-ridden verses. As a songwriter, he has a tendency to rely on genre tropes — decks of cards, trains, etc. But his earnest delivery helps steer him away from outright cliché. "Gasoline" is an album highlight. Built around a chicken-pickin' guitar riff and a classic train beat, the song features Chadburn's best writing and some truly memorable hooks. Every good alt-country record needs at least one exultant 6/8 ballad. Chadburn obliges on "Annabelle." It's a sweet, heartfelt love song featuring dovetailing fiddle and mandolin runs that ably tug at the heartstrings. Production-wise, Faded Colors sounds magnificent. It's little surprise, given that central Vermont Americana ace Colin McCaffrey engineered — and contributed his talents as a multi-instrumentalist. Few local producers have such command of Americana's sonic aesthetics. And that skill pays off grandly on Chadburn's promising debut. See the original article here. |
Review of "Faded Colors in Darkened Skies" by Doug Collette of AllAboutJazz.com and Glide Magazine
Having developed into a musical renaissance man of sorts around his native stomping grounds in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, Kyle Chadburn belies his years by playing solo and with at least two different aggregations of musicians, coincidental with the completion of his first recording, the precocious maturity of which belies the fact its a debut. In fact, most of the original material that comprises Faded Colors in Darkened Skies, whether the vivid imagery of "Gasoline" or the sharp rocking of "A Long Hard Ride," cleanly transcends the occasional easy rhymes of the lyrics and stock phraseology in some of the titles, And the performances as well as the songs themselves are superior to the occasionally homogeneous arrangements such as the bluegrass by-the-numbers intro of "Ferris Wheel." The author of all this original material has an engaging vocal style that sounds even more emphatic when backed with the steadfast drumming of Brett Hoffman (aided and abetted here by a trio of equally staunch bassists in the persons of Chris Doncaster, Gary Matthews and Bill Prue.) Besides assuming the roles of singer, songwriter and guitarist, Chadburn took on the the duties of co-producer here with Colin McCaffrey at the latter's Green Room Studio, where all the recording, mixing and mastering was completed for impressive sonic clarity. This concentration of responsibilities imparts continuity to a record on which the honesty and introspection in songs such as "Almost Over You" sounds as striking as the album's evocative cover art looks. See the original article here. |