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Cobblestone Below My Feet ...and other tales of devils and onions - new album November 2006

Buy the new album on the Ogden Park Site or download it on I-Tunes

It’s great to be a fan of music that means something to you and you’re lucky enough to be able to meet the people who make the music.  It’s even better when you end up becoming friends with them.  These are all good things, and I can honestly say that I am fortunate enough to be able to apply each of them to the wonderful people who make up Chemystry Set.  

I was lucky enough to be asked by Sven Eberlein, guitarist for the Set and all around nice guy, a few weeks back if I’d be willing to receive an advance copy of their new album and possibly write “a couple of overall thoughts.”  I was very flattered and needless to say, I responded with an enthusiastic “Yes!!”  When I received it in the mail, it wasn’t even the final mastered version and the artwork for the disc insert was scotch-taped together.  A piece of history and a collector’s item to boot – pretty cool.  And, for the better part of six days, I listened to nothing but this CD.  

The new album is called “Cobblestone Below My Feet …and other tales of devils and onions.”  Having been fortunate enough to have bought a copy of the Set’s live album from 2004, “Live at the Sweatlodge,” I was already familiar with what ended up becoming roughly about half of their latest offering.  I came to realize that the live versions of the songs I’d come to know and love so much were actually only diamonds in the rough and that their polished studio counterparts were actually even better.   

I probably listened to the new album all the way through half a dozen times or more before I actually took the time to read the lyrics and see what was inside the insert.  I’m glad that I did it this way, because it gave me the chance to hear things without any pre-conceived notions.  (Note, even though I’d been familiar with some of the songs from before, I’d never been able to peruse they lyrics.)  After soaking in this wonderful new music, it really began to occur to me just what I was hearing.  

This is positive, uplifting music.  It’s good for your soul.  And yet, when you listen to the words, you begin to realize that what you’re hearing are warnings embedded in these beautiful melodies.  Warnings that we as a human race need to rethink what we’re doing, reexamine who we are, and reestablish a better way of living because this world and this life are the only ones we’re going to get.  Now, that may sound fairly cryptic, but it’s not, because following these warnings are reminders that hope does still exist and it’s not too late to embrace it.  And we can begin by looking inward and reflecting back to the world around us in order to affect positive change.  

Am I reading too much into all of this?  Is it naïve to think that an album can change how you feel about the world around you?  I don’t think so.  The things you choose to be passionate about and draw inspiration from should stir your soul; they should be potentially life-changing.  Too much of our existence is filled with shallow, plastic imitations of life that are being marketed to us by people who are not interested in our well-being.  At this particular moment in time, when it feels like we live in an age where optimism is a rare commodity, Chemystry Set is here to remind us that it’s not too late, that there are still ways to improve things, and that you really can draw life-changing inspiration from music that genuinely matters.  Yes, it really is as simple as that.  Buy the album and see for yourself.

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