By the time I get around to writing reviews, it’s usually been a month or two since I first listened to the artist. So I can’t quite say for sure what grabbed me about Jeffrey Martin’s Dogs in the Daylight but I do know what made me come back to it. Martin’s lyrics have a quiet majesty matched by his warm voice and spare instrumentation. Dogs in the Daylight may have been released in August but I can’t think of a better match for this drizzly autumn morning.
My personal favorite is “Wellspring,” a gentle epic of a family caught by a surprise Apache attack. Martin’s hushed, impassive narration of the violence and retribution capture Martin’s approach to songwriting: observational and piercingly honest while retelling stories of glory and defeat, much like watching the fall foliage blaze out and drift to the ground.