Weightless
Artist:  Dick Prall
Label:  Authentic Records
Time:  10 Songs / 39 Minutes

When I first put in the disc, I wasn’t sure what to expect.  I was hoping it wasn’t another sensitive singer-songwriter with a lot of self absorbed confessional songs.  
 
What this Chicago based singer-songwriter has made is a very literate and wonderfully easy going record that has been a joy to listen to.  The lyrics do carry a restless energy with many references to moving and searching for something.
 
Some of the tracks deal with some unsavory characters that don’t appear to have any sense of regret fullness.  As Prall sings on “I Took a Life”:
 
                        I took a life
                        And any purpose I could tell
                        Still seems unkind
                        I may not buy it for myself
                        But there’s a little be of something
                        That I never left behind
                        This is a million times
                        I took a life
 
However, even when Prall is feeling at his lowest songs like “The Cornflake Song,” a song about an apparent dissolving relationship, he finds a way to make light of the situation.  
                        
                        You say you don’t belong here
                        But I can’t keep from waiting for
                        The next day to come
                        So I can shout out to everyone
                        How you never disappear
                        You’ve always been living here 
 
Though this disc carries a somewhat heavy feeling lyrically on several tracks, the instrumentation and production have a very spacious feel.  Sometimes it is just a guitar and vocal, other times have full band arrangements.  It never feels overdone though and the musicians seem to a good feel for what Prall is trying to accomplish.
 
A very worthy effort and a good listen indeed.
 
Gar Saeger