Micah Dalton - Pawnshop

After writing formulaic reviews for many publications, it gets tiring to achieve the same sort of goal in constructing a music review. Every once in a while, a writer needs to be set free. Micah Dalton’s ‘Pawn Shop’ is the perfect forum within which that can happen.

So a while ago, I got a message on facebook from this guy named Micah. He got a hold of me through the Burnside facebook group. He told me he was releasing an album on a smaller record label and asked me if I’d be interested in reviewing it. Having a penchant for new and upcoming artists, I said ‘heck yes’. A few weeks later, a package arrived in my mailbox…and a wild and fantastic journey ensued within my ears and mind.

There was a time when albums were more than just 10 tracks of 3 minute radio hits that featured 3 verses, a bridge of some sloppy nature and a chorus. Micah Dalton, however, is a songwriter and a storyteller with something substantial to say. Following an actual character named ‘Pawn Shop’ through the dusty streets of Georgia in 1965, the lyrics and tracks of the album chart a story of self-discovery and transfiguration. Songs like “I’ll Find You In Ohio” take the listener on (what has been self-described by Micah as) a ‘multi-sensory experience’. Crossing any and all borders of musical categorization, Micah’s style is somewhat similar to an early Prince in the sense that he weaves many different fabrics throughout each song. With an instrumental arsenal that is multi-pronged and many leagues deep, each song is a new page in the same, riveting book as you truly never know what you’ll get.

One really shouldn’t write reviews in the first person…but for the moment, I could care less. That’s right. Me. I said that. For the most part, I have a lot of issues with the music industry and that may never change.

Micah Dalton is a bright light of hope in a dark tunnel that lets me know that the real soul of music is in the roots of the songwriter.