John Steam Jr Releases A Rustic EP

A new album released from John Steam Jr delivers such an incredibly warm tonality with inviting acoustic instrumentation and such a wonderfully portrayed personality in the form of storytelling from a personal perspective, and all of this comes together with a very rootsy and rustic folk feel, complete with Southern undertones and blues approaches.

Hard On Yourself Kid is a record that gives off such great detail lyrically that at times, it can really help paint a picture in your head as songs unfold. This is one of my favorite attributes about the record, and they also seem like songs that have been around forever.

They are songs for old souls, and people like me dig right into this kind of stuff.

The performance of this record is completely genuine; it comes through with such a rich and authentic soundscape and heart that you just want more and more of it.

Of course, it's all acoustic-based but there are layers of texture for certain tracks that make them thicker and give them more depth.

Certain songs have slide guitar going through them with hints of reverb effect, giving that distant feel. I love this aspect because it does help the intensity of certain sections come through, and it also lets the song portray a particular aesthetic that again, gives off so much of that Southern and rustic tonality that helps it feel as genuine as it is.

Along with slide guitars, you also have acoustic guitar, banjo, and more along with robust vocals that are delivered with just a perfect level of raspiness to go right along with that rustic aesthetic and let everything come full circle.

The first and title track of the record is an amazing introduction because it does sort of roll all of that into one song. You have the distant slide guitars, the acoustic, the banjo, and all of that coming through, and it's great because these are some of the staples that a lot of the EP will portray.

So, once you dive into this track and you love it, you know you're in for plenty more.

As I mentioned before, the ability to tell stories is a real key element in this release. You find yourself getting wrapped up in some of the songs lyrically, and although the guitar work and vocals are all really wonderfully done, at times, those lyrics are really what wrap themselves around you and keep you right where they want to.

There's also something somewhat cinematic about this record. I love the stripped-down approach; even when there are multiple guitars or stringed instruments at once, it still has a very one-on-one appeal.

The energy and dynamic of how these are performed put you right there in the moment with the songs themselves, and this is a beautiful thing because it almost feels like they were recorded live.

Obviously, I wasn't there, so I'm not sure how they were recorded, and there are multiple instruments going on at once through many songs, but the energy and performances are what give that live performance aesthetic.

This is the kind of record that you listen to and immediately want to go see the artist perform live. This is simply because he's able to capture this sort of lightning in a bottle so well on record that you just want to see it in your face.

Another thing I should mention is that this is absolutely an EP that you want to listen to all the way through. Listening to one or two tracks will give you an idea of what you might expect; however, it will not give you the full spectrum of the EP itself.

Listening to this record from start to finish gives you more of an experience and none of the songs are really meant to be missed because they're almost like chapters in a book.

I'm sure you wouldn't go reading a book and just skipping chapters, and this is the kind of record that you don't skip songs with.

You let it take you to a different place. That's kind of what it's meant for. This beautiful Blues folk storytelling is something that lets you hold on to it. Listening to all the songs is important with a release like this one.

One of my favorite tracks on the record is actually the closing song called "Ghost Town Home", which still portrays a lot of the Southern Blues undertone but in a different way. This is more of a straight folk approach. It feels very personal, and it waits a while before additional guitars and instruments are in play.

It's like a slow burn, and I feel like it's one of the best ways to finish out the record. 

So, it's got an amazing introduction, and the exit to the record feels the same. It's the closing of the book, and when you're done with it, you'll have to sort of reacclimate yourself back to wherever you are and whatever you were doing again.

The record serves almost like a bit of an escape. This is something else I absolutely loved about the record, and it was no less of an escape the second or third times around.

Upon listening to this release, I took a deep dive into the artist's back catalog on Spotify and found a slew of releases under his belt that are, for the most part, pretty amazing.

After you dig into this record, I would definitely check out some of his previous releases.

A lot of them seem to showcase pieces of the man himself.

Check all of this out and see what it does for you.

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