With Come Cry With Me, Daniel Romano's transition from the punky songwriter he once was to the County & Western troubadour he's worked so hard to become is as complete as the Seventies “glam country” era suit the singer is sporting on the album's cover. On this record, all the turns and (occasionally awkward) growth periods that the singer had to go through since putting his band Attack In Black into stasis are suddenly validated; true, Workin' For The Music Man was a little hokey and felt a bit contrived in its slightly rubber-faced posturing, but the singer's voice rings with the exact same country heart that Willie Nelson possesses from the moment “Middle Child” opens the record, and that makes the development that listeners waited through worthwhile. Yes, Sleep Beneath The Willow fairly smacked of ambition, and that it still came up short of the “awesome” mark was a bit of a heart-breaker – but the mammoth improvements in songwriting showcased by songs like “I'm Not Crying For You” (check out the imagery which lines lyrics like, “When she left me, she thought that I was hurting/ She heard that I'd been crying to her friends/ But the truth is, I just got a new job acting/ So any tear that rolls my cheek is just pretend”) recall the greatness of Porter Wagoner and make the transition suddenly seem like the smallest trifle worth the patience. Simply said, Come Cry With Me is the achievement that true believers in Romano's potential have been waiting for, and the validation offered by Come Cry With Me is staggering and uplifting.
As much as some fans may have wanted to believe that Daniel Romano was capable of a record of such true country craftsmanship as this, they'll still be floored by the performances on Come Cry With Me. Now warbling with a solid Lyric Tenor and no sign of weakness, Romano presents listeners with a set of songs of the caliber that even seasoned veterans keep carefully in jewel-encrusted cases and hide in that little space next to the furnace for safe-keeping. “Two Pillow Sleeper,” “He Lets Her Memory Go” and “Where No One Else Will Find It” all fall easily into that group of great songs, but Romano also illustrates that he's capable of even more as well when he gets the local piggly-wiggly hopping with some chicken-fried chutzpah in “Chicken Bill” and then proves he's an adept C&W storyteller just like Waylon Jennings (complete with the requisite psychodrama) on “When I Was Abroad.” None of these forms isn't exactly new to Romano, but the fact that his performances are now so proficient sounding is truly remarkable; so much so, in fact, that Romano being a kid from an industrial town in Canada and not from the deep south somewhere is almost unbelievable.
Regardless of how unbelievable it might seem, there's no questioning the quality of what Daniel Romano has done with Come Cry With Me. Over the last few years, Romano did his work and paid his dues, and now he can say with authority that he has arrived. The galaxy of country talent in the pop spectrum will have no choice but to make some room for this bright shining star, because he deserves it.
Artist:
www.danielromanomusic.com/
www.facebook.com/danielromanomusic
Album:
Come Cry With Me is out now. Buy it here on Amazon .
