Lamb encompasses lost love, addiction, family dynamics and even the rowdy, eclectic city of Detroit in one masterful album. With honest and specific lyrics, the collection appeals to a large variety of listeners looking for a lighter perspective on heavy topics. “Good Hart” rolls out as a collage of original folk and rock songs with occasional humorous undertones and sweet melodic ballads, taking the listener on a creative journey from beginning to end.
Digging Deeper: Songs like “Spring Would Come” will tug at your heart while Lamb references tulips growing that remind him of a love complicated by time and distance. The lyrics “I had to get to the roots / It tore me up inside / Wounded our garden, flowers died,” lead the listener to contemplate relationships and growth from loss. “I Work at Wixom (But I Live in Detroit)” paints a perfect picture of downtown Detroit, and how many natives feel while living in the ‘burbs and visiting the recharging city: “I work at Wixom but I live in Detroit / Never been robbed in the hood at gunpoint / I’m a Cass Corridor Midnight Cowboy / Got a jacket just like Jon Voight.” Not shy about shredding the guitar in “This Guitar Kills,” Lamb notes the fleeting career of many rock musicians and covering basic show etiquette in the music business. With a long-standing career in the industry as a songwriter and performer, Lamb certainly has earned the right to give this advice to the “Doom scrollers and TikTok teens” in this song.
Perfect For: Road trips or a fireside Saturday night. Songs such as “Second to No One” will have you dancing in the kitchen with your partner; “You Weren’t So Bad” will provoke reflection and humility about family and past mistakes. – Meghan Wilcox

This Guitar Kills

Avenue Of Fashion

Spring Would Come

John D. Lamb lives in two worlds.
In his literary life he’s known by songwriters, poets and prose writers nationwide for being the director of multiple Michigan-based writers’ retreats, including the Detroit Michigan Writers’ Retreat, the Lost Lake Writers’ Retreat in northern Michigan, and his popular Lamb’s Retreat for Songwriters, now in its 28th year. And then there’s the life he leads as an award-winning singer, songwriter and recording artist who’s been performing for Michigan audiences for decades.

Lamb’s newest recording project, “A Movie Night,” is the perfect intersection of those two realms. The album features 15 original songs, many of which sprang from the very writing retreats he’s known for directing.

“A Movie Night” is the most recent release on Lamb’s own Mezzanotte label (named for his grandfather Giovanni Mezzanotte, or Johnny Midnight, who was himself an infamous character back in his Italian hometown). It’s no coincidence that “A Movie Night” bookends Lamb’s first Mezzanotte release from the 90s, “A Novel Day,” but Lamb is intentional about revealing his development as an artist and performer since that first album some 20 plus years ago.

As varied as the titles off a marquee, the themes of “A Movie Night” bravely wander the wide-open roads of the storytelling process. Whether it’s the tale of two young girls dealing with the consequences of their weekend revelry in “Normal by Monday,” or the teenage angst of the protagonist in “R Rated Night in Redford” who sneaks into an off-limits movie to explore the forbidden world of smoking, swearing and sex.

While Lamb’s unconventional and often whimsical songwriting provides the record’s framework, his acoustic rhythm guitar drives the feel behind each cut. But it’s the versatility and creativity of Lamb’s longtime friend, producer and guitar player, Jim Bizer, that really bring out the originality in Lamb’s songs. His surfy baritone guitar on “The Year of the Roses” is a fun complement to Len Wallace’s accordion, and gives the tune a cool south-of-the-border groove reminiscent of the Mavericks.

The guitar that Bizer plays is in itself a special guest; The black Stratocaster is an heirloom formerly played by Lamb’s late brother, Sal D’Agnillo, who passed away around the time of Lamb’s 2007 recording, “Feel That.” D’Agnillo, who was a popular and talented guitar player, is featured on “Feel That.” He left the guitar to Lamb.

“Jim made my brother’s guitar sound really good,” says Lamb. “I think my brother would be pleased with the way he played it.”

The record features multiple guests, including some trombone by bugs Beddow. Bizer’s slide guitar and banjo is particularly energized when he’s driving the toe-tapping, side-swaying rhythms behind “Bound to Talk,” which features punctuating background vocals by the distinctive voice of Tino Gross of the Howling Diablos. He also plays drums on the track.

On the ethereal meditation “Ringing of the Bell,” however, the spotlight shines fully and poignantly on Lamb. The song is a beautifully touching lament, perfectly balanced in production and performance.

Although there is a timeless quality to Lamb’s songwriting, there is a sense of nostalgia to “A Movie Night” in that it plays like an album from a time now past. The songs form cinematic vignettes that flow seamlessly from one to the next. There’s a picture in your mind for every song; nothing lays flat.

“I come from the album generation,” says Lamb. “If you sat down to listen to an album, you sat down to listen to the whole thing, side one, side two. I tried to make a record that people will listen to in that way. Something that will make them want to take the time to spin it all.”

John D. Lamb

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