Gedalya - Waiting for Redemption (Gedalya Folk Rock Rabbi Records)

Gedalya tends to write songs from an autobiographical perspective. The stories he tells are his, or at least they place him at the center of the action. That’s a style I like. After all, an album of songs is like getting to know an artist. Well, it is if they are brave enough to be honest with us, if they allow us into the more personal part of their life. If you want flights of fantasy or tall tales, try The Disney Channel. If you want a slice of reality, honesty, perhaps even intimacy, seek out your neighborhood troubadour.

Waiting for Redemption starts with the perfect introduction: “A Song is Born.” It is a look into the struggling artist’s life, as Gedalya tells us about a time in his life and his writing process. It also has that beautiful circular irony and self-fulfilling prophecy attached – by way of telling us how he struggles to find the songs, he conjures one before our very eyes. How magical. How meta!

And if that opener is delicate and Dylan-esque, elsewhere, songs like “It Blows My Mind” show that he is just as adept at the foot-on-the-monitor rocker as he is with the more delicate deliveries.

Between these ends of the sonic spectrum, “Freedom” is a slow-burning and astute look at what liberty and personal freedom actually mean in modern society. The lovely and lilting, buoyant and bopping title track is that perfect middle ground between the singer-songwriter’s solo sensibility and the full band’s sonic gang mentality, bedecked in increasingly intriguing tones and beguiling textures, and the perfect way to sign off.

Gedalya is a consummate musician, and Waiting for Redemption is a well-rounded set of songs. Taken together, he is an artist that we will hear much more of in the future. You mark my words.

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