Bleu Stroud - Echo In Laurel Canyon
Way back when, during the ‘60s, in a place called Laurel Canyon, music that changed the world was created by artists living in Laurel Canyon, artists like The Beach Boys, The Mamas & The Papas, Joni Mitchell, CSN&Y, the Doors, and Jackson Browne.
Bleu Stroud
A new documentary, entitled Echo in the Canyon, opens today in L.A. and a week later in New York City. Directed by Andrew Slater, the film features artists such as Ringo Starr, Tom Petty, Fiona Apple, Beck, and Cat Power.
A few years ago, Mark Dutton and Josh Fields wrote a song, “Echo In Laurel Canyon,” paying tribute to the musical creativity engendered by the Canyon. One of my favorite artists, Bleu Stroud, recently recorded the song. As usual, Stroud’s magical voice, like Rumpelstiltskin, fashions pure gold.
Stroud is set to succeed Taylor Swift as the queen of alt-pop, exploding onto the music milieu with her luscious singles “Blue Town,” “Train Wreck,” “Still Love You Anyway,” and “Hands Like The Ocean.” As superb as her songwriting is, it’s Stroud’s voice, with its polished, graceful surfaces and tantalizing textures, that transcends all ordinary degrees of sonority.
As usual, Stroud’s magical voice, like Rumpelstiltskin, fashions pure gold.
Delicately nuanced, yet potent, Stroud’s voice is akin to a universal element, like the phlogiston of the ancients, spread throughout the universe, but only bequeathed to a few.
“Echo In Laurel Canyon” opens on a country-pop-flavored melody cruising smoothly on soft gleaming guitars riding an intoxicating rhythm reminiscent of early Linda Ronstadt. The dripping bray of an organ fills the tune with drawling So-Cal flavors, as Stroud’s bewitching tones slide forth like cashmere over silk.
A trembling, sparkling breakdown infuses the music with creamy wavering hues, leading to swelling harmonics crowned by Stroud’s intensifying timbres. The mood and feel of the song glows with nostalgic savors and sonic hylotheism, wherein music and the divine coalesce.
“Echo In Laurel Canyon” is suffused with a beauty so extraordinary it seems to have a vitality of its own, numinous and breathtaking.
