Bebo Norman has a warm voice. It's as clear as your next door neighbor. Listening to him could also be likened to talking to your neighbor. His voice sounds a bit like Chris Rice, and his entire album is mostly just him and his guitar at the tempo of Phil Keaggy's "Beyond Nature". In concert, he even seems like your next-door neighbor. He is approachable--at one of his concerts he walked up to me and told me he liked my beard. He is a nice guy and there are too few of those in the world.
All types of music, some more than others, conjure images in the mind. The sound of Norman's simple rhythm, moaning steel guitar and one song's washboard brings to mind an early fall sunrise on a porch in some dewy rose garden in the Carolinas--Norman's home. His music seems to be influenced more by southern gentility than rowdy rebellion, yet that doesn't rob him of the edge in his voice -- he's certainly more skilled folk than soft rock.
His opening song, "Walk Down This Mountain," is the fastest paced and has a definite rock hook to it--more of one than the rest of the album. If only the rest could have snagged me with that hook. As it is, the next 11 songs diminish to a virtual hush, with few of the catchy dynamics in the first song.
On the bright side, docile and relaxing music is still an important genre, especially when it contains as meaningful lyrics as this album. His lyrics have a healing quality and an authenticity uncommon in this kind of folk music. His voice has a healing, melancholy and often tearful quality to it. In fact, one of his songs is appropriately called "Healing Song," touching each of us in those times in our lives when we are depressed and emotionally fragile.
Emotionally painful experiences are not best musically represented by aggressive musical styles like rock 'n' roll. Norman's topics, from surrender to God, to a wedding day, to death, are best represented in the ballad forms he uses. One particular heart-wrenching song, "Rita" is about the death of a friend. It is a beautiful and haunting eulogy that can spread chills through the empathetic listener who has lost a loved one. The lyrics speak for themselves.
Your broken body cannot weather the years your youth longs to spend
So go down graceful
Sleep with the angels, and wake up whole again
'It was not your time'
That's a useless line
A fallen world took your life
But the God that sometimes can't be found will wrap himself around
So lay down sister, lay down ... lay down Rita ... lay down.
This album is for the fan of quiet, contemplative, Phil Keaggy-tempo-meets-Chris-Rice-vocals music. It isn't for everyone, but it is an album that needed to be produced in the folk genre, and it shows Norman has skill and promise in his particular genre.
3.5 tocks
Other coverage for this album
ReAL Magazine 1999Reviewed by Josh L!Watershed Records, started by Cliff Young of Caedmon's Call, has signed a talented new artist by the name of Bebo Norman. Although his latest release, Ten Thousand Days, may not be an album you'll want to run out and buy, it might be a good idea to keep an eye on this Bebo and his future musical projects. There is a sense of a developing maturity in this album that is very intriguing. Bebo's…The Phantom Tollbooth 1999Reviewed by Cathy CourtwrightWhere personal thought meets moment by moment happenings, this is exactly where Bebo Norman's latest project meets our souls. His rich, acoustically driven, contemporary folk sound stems from his measurement of life within moments. Norman, a former biology major, chose to take a year off before beginning medical school. One year has changed to three and growing. During this time, he has toured…Similar sounding releases
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