The music of pop troubadour and Madison native Sam Lyons tends to be the best kind of risk-reward proposition, in that it delivers far more than it asks.
Last month, Lyons released the fruits of a two-year collaboration with Detroit producers Nick Trevisick and Marshall Block: The Detroit Sessions, an 8-song EP that adds several coats of polish and sheen to the bouncy guitar-pop formula he spent a decade perfecting at local
festivals and in bars across Wisconsin. It’s a mix of new songs and a pair of re-recorded songs (“The Way You Make Me Feel” and “Alright”) from earlier releases. It’s a catchy, endlessly upbeat effort planted squarely in the Jason Mraz/Jack Johnson wheelhouse.
The Detroit Sessions finds Lyons contemplating familiar subjects through a contemporary lens. The first tune, “Starting Something,” begins with hope for mending a fractured relationship before supersizing into a commentary on our polarized society. On most of the others, he’s either celebrating or struggling with relationships and L-O-V-E. While the lyric couplets don’t deliver much in the way of surprises, the sound quality very much does: Pro-level production finally puts Lyons’ soulful voice front and center, where it’s free to latch onto your eardrums like a hopped-up puppy tearing into a chew toy.
Lyons embraces the pop vibe, dialing down some of the country flashes that marked his earlier releases. A few tunes feature steel guitar, but the banjos and fiddles that flitted through April to May sit this one out. Meanwhile, the Jack Johnson vibe comes through even more strongly in the more sharply produced version of the white-boy rappin’ “Alright.”
Lyons recently relocated to Nashville, presumably to be part of a bigger music scene, but returns to Wisco are still on the calendar. He was in Sturgeon Bay in late October, and may make some Madison or Milwaukee stops in 2019.
The Detroit Sessions wraps with a slow, introspective tune called “The Road.” No existential crisis needed, dude. By now, the answer to the song’s central question for Lyons — where am I going? — is pretty clear. As far up the music-industry ladder as his talent can take him.
