Vintage Review: Dave Mallett's This Town (1993)

I’ve long contended that the best talent floating around the “Music City” wasn’t necessarily in the country arena. Aside from the many talented rockers plying their trade in pursuit of the brass ring, there are a slew of performers who can’t be labeled with any sort of adjective albatross. Steve Earle, Nancy Griffith, John Hiatt, and Mary Chapin-Carpenter, to name a few, have all found varying degrees of success in Nashville, country or no. Now the city needs to make room for Dave Mallett.

Mallett is an old-fashioned tunesmith, with equal parts folk, country and rock entering into his songwriting equation. He is an extremely gifted lyricist, spinning beautiful story-songs out of the threads of memory, romance and tradition. His deep, fluid vocals are perfectly suited to the material he creates. Songs like “Main Street,” which commemorates that vanishing American phenomena; “Take Time,” in which a father passes a generation of wisdom onto his son; and “Change of the Seasons,” a tale of the inevitable passing of the years (and, with them, friends dear) showcase the storytelling skills which Mallett brings to his craft.

This Town is a thoroughly enjoyable album, made all the more so by Mallett’s ability, in song, to evoke memories and emotions. We could use a few more writers of Mallett’s abilities here in the “Music City;” in the meantime, we’ll enjoy those we do have...here in This Town. (Vanguard Records)

Review originally published by The Metro, 1993