A Tale of Love and Tragedy by Andy Lehman & The Night Moves in ‘Lowcountry’

Much like a movie, Andy Lehman & The Night Moves begin their story album at the tragic end with a young woman missing and a young man “caught up in something bad.”  With slants of pop, folk rock, and country, Lowcountry begins with a somber mood as you are left wondering, how did they end up like this and where will they go from here?

This tale of love and fear, jealousy and despair progresses throughout the album.  With a sighing chorus and soothing guitar strums, “An Arrow Flew” displays the dreamy high of falling in love.  Yet once love is established, lamentations enter over the young man’s inability to move forward and commit to his love, Ally.  Lehman achingly cries out repeatedly just before confessing, “I couldn’t take it,” the chance to have love for a lifetime.

The Night Moves rev up the guitars while venting jealousy during “Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing.”  The twist of the story is told as the young man warns his lost love, “Don’t let no wolf in sheep’s clothing gather you.”  And yet, the irony is that amidst screeching guitars, the young man himself declares, “I’m slipping out of my head”…and right into the role of the wolf.  The stop and go nature of the song feels like calculated volatility as “The fire below is soon to reach the point of no return.”

Despair settles in as the young man realizes he has walked away from a love that will never again be in his grasp.  The climax of the story – when the young man shoots Ally’s new love while the two of them walk along the dock – is nearly lost with the song’s dreaminess and despair.  The guitar seems to mourn while the young man tells Ally, “I cry for you.”  He regrets losing her, but offers no remorse over the murder, vaguely explaining that “Everybody can turn into things they’re not when the fire below gets to burning hot enough.”

With drawn out vocals and melancholy guitar accented by piano, the end echoes the beginning chorus, “It’s not the end of the world.”  Hearts break, tragedies occur, and lives move on.

www.andylehman.com

www.myspace.com/andylehman

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~ Myriah Christine, Contributor

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