DUSTY BLACK

                                                                "Lost Track of Summer'" 

                                                                Average Joe's Entertainment

With last year’s “Who Are You,” a bold declaration and firm stance against the contradicting constraints that were being placed on our every day lives during the pandemic from our own government, Dusty Black made an immediate impression on country music fans, drawing the proverbial line in the sand that proudly raised a fist into the air and said you’re with me or you’re not.

With his highly anticipated, semi-autobiographical debut album South of Somewhere releasing this past week, Black continued to introduce us to who he is and his unapologetic believes through hard-hitting songs such as “Them Boots,” but catches us a bit off guard with his toned down, more heartfelt songs such as the album’s focus track “Lost Track of Summer.”

The song, written by Adam Doleac, Taylor Phillips, Brock Berryhill, and Andy Albert, keeps the tempo in the more mid-tempo range with a punch to the chorus that fits snuggly in the modern realm of what’s working at country radio today, while focusing the lyrics on a summer lust that’s inevitably coming to its end.

Taking us directly to the boardwalk beach town that’s been the backdrop for their summer romance, Black paints the picture in the opening verse as he begins reliving the past three months, singing of sharing a kiss on a Ferris wheel that is about to stop spinning for the season, how there won’t be any more barefoot footprints leading to a heart they drew on the shore, Etc. These locations descriptions are also something he continues painting in the bridge as he sings about their being a cover band and how their suitcases are filled with sand.

This looking back over their best moments which have now become their biggest memories, is the catalyst for the emotional charge of the lyrics as the natural grit built into Black’s vocals really helps capture them properly as you can feel the missing you pain shining through with each word he sings on remember when lines in the second verse such as, “It feels like yesterday I was trying to get your name over a Corona at the bar” and “One night turned to another, two strangers into lovers, goodbye never crossed our mind.”

Lamenting that everything they had found over that summer ends tomorrow, expertly places the timestamp on the flurry of emotions that he’s battling through as it’s revealed that they are in their final moments before saying goodbye to one another and leaving their next chapter – if there is one – completely in the hands of fate.

With great plays on beachy phrasing to capture the goodbye, the chorus sees him asking why they low tide has to turn to high tide and why the sunset to sunrise, allowing the impact to be felt that much more strongly when he asks in the hook, “How did we get lost, so caught up in each other…We lost track of summer.”

With an already established following that has seen Dusty Black amass 100K monthly Spotify listens and 4 million total streams overall, it’s easy to say that he’s reached a buzzworthy status. However, it’s because of him being able to slide away from the edgier, hard-hitting grit that we first heard from him, and bring us into something with tremendous depth and heart to show the full scope of who he is, that he elevates his status to artist to watch!

(Review Written By: Jeffrey Kurtis)

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