
Like many of the artists his supporters have likened him to, John Fullbright is a storyteller at heart. Songwriters like Neil Young and Randy Newman had an uncanny knack for potently visceral third-person accounts, and Fullbright often demonstrates a similar proclivity or at least the potential to. High Road, from his aptly titled forthcoming album Songs, is perhaps the best evidence yet that the Okemah-bred 26-year- old can paint a picture with the best of them. It would be easy to get wrapped up in the story of its protagonists, a couple who fall in love on the premise of innocence only to endure a tragically abrupt ending. Yet Jack and Susie are mere conduits for Fullbrights message; Living comes natural to many, he sings. Love comes natural to few. While his delivery might not seem all that experiential on the surface, the overarching theme suggests a deeper, more personal meaning.
And while the song clocks in at a brazen seven and a half minutes, each acoustic strum, each lyric is necessary to properly convey its melancholic fervor. Ultimately, High Road unfolds in a way thats arguably as penetrating as anything in the budding singer-songwriters fledgling yet increasingly engaging catalog.
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