Jefferson Hyll Inside Our Houses
Hailing from Owensboro Kentucky, Jefferson Hyll has a new album Inside Our Houses that showcases his songwriting and sunny heartland rock style. In this album, there are regrets and hope for things to work out, wrapped in bursts of optimism all in assessing losses and dreams. The songs ranges from believing in miracles to putting the past in the rearview and overarching it all, a longing to be home and stop running and searching for something that feels elusive because it just might be right beside you.
In “Harbor Town” there’s a feeling of optimism and a still holding out hope for that relationship that fell apart, and it’s about still believing in miracles: “If you ever want to talk about it, if you ever want to find what we lost somehow, if you ever want to talk about it I’m here in Harbor Town.” “A Thousand Miles” continues the driving beat and tambourine to punctuate “say goodbye to Baltimore…a thousand years between us.”
In “Let’s Go Home,” the homesickness and longing for place and belonging is palpable and connects on a visceral level. “To Get It Right” tightens things up in an electric rockin’ song about trusted advice and pursuing your dreams, giving it all you got, with an eye that moment when the radio is playing your song. “It’ll take some time to get it right child.”
Mid album, the title track adds a sunny organ melody and a story of Nicholas and Joseph and Francis of Assisi and the bottom line, “We turn our heads, we open doors that can’t be shut, inside our houses we keep candles lit all day.”
Later in the album, “The Promised Land of Dreams” might be considered the heart of the album, as Jefferson Hyll sings of overcoming uncertainty and keeping powerfully focused on your dreams. “I believe in the seeking you shall find, opening doors to the promised land of dreams.”
There are touches of faith and spirituality in the optimism Jefferson Hyll channels through his music. Inside Our Houses is 15 songs, which includes two bonus tracks. Very enjoyable.
The music and more information is available here: https://jeffersonhyll.bandcamp.com/album/inside-our-houses
Enjoy our previous coverage here: REVIEW: Jefferson Hyll “Spirits”
Musicians on the album are Jefferson Hyll (Phillip E Michell) on vocals, piano, acoustic, electric and lead guitars, drums and bass; Joel Davis on guitar solos on “To Get It Right Now,” “Inside Our Houses,” “Light It Up” (Slide guitar), “Landscape Eyes,” and “Singing Crimson and Clover” and additional guitars on “To Get It Right Now”; Cade Roberts on rhythm and solo on “A Thousand Years” and acoustic guitar on “Into the Sound”; and Arden Mitchell on background vocals on “Harbor Town,” “Let’s Go Home,” “Once upon a Time Goes by So Fast,” “Into the Sound,” “Landscape Eyes,” and “Light It Up.”
It was produced, mixed and mastered with album art by Jefferson Hyll.