On Mark Gothard's third CD, "Midnight," a collection of bare-bones contemporary folk songs, the singer-songwriter goes back to the beginning. The 15-track CD contains songs newly recorded, but written in his college days, well before his first album from '03. Songs that he "wrote on napkins at bars, in parking lots, in alleyways at 3 a.m..." As such, there's a youthful immediacy that is next to impossible to replicate as one matures. Stripped down, haunting pieces built primarily on acoustic guitar, with some spare use of piano and drums provide the sonic template, a lo-fi texture that puts the songs front and center. "Skies Painted Blue," one of the most affecting tunes on the album, is a beautiful love song, aching with the singer's passion and desire; "Dressed In Red," with its rich-as-soil vocal, nimbly weds melody to guitar flourishes with imaginative lyrics as impressionistic as they are sublime; on "To Heaven We'll Go," Gothard strikes pay-dirt with a fragile, minor-key tune that lingers long after the song has ended. Filling out the rest of the CD are equally smart and elusive songs that attest to Gothard's original and noteworthy song craft.
-Rice B. and the RadioIndy.com Reviewer Team
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