The Long Journey Home ~ Remo Ricaldone ~ Italy

Raised from a musical family on the dusty plains of Oklahoma, Nancy K. Dillon knows her music enclosed in the spirit of nostalgia. A bit 'restless dreamer' and a bit provincial America, this album is really interesting to see as the quality combines with a musical vision of lucid and poetic material. During her career (this CD Roses Guide to Time Travel is six years in following her debut with the disc Just Let Me Dream) Nancy K. Dillon has shared the stage with great names like her countrymen Kevin Welch and Jimmy Lafave and then Guy Clark, Ray Wylie Hubbard, the Everly Brothers, the talented songwriter Gretchen Peters and Briton Clive Gregson, musicians who in one way or another have left a mark on her songwriting. The stories all have an intriguing appeal which contributes to the success of a substantial and inspired album. "Last Town On The Line" and "New Train" celebrate the myth of the railroad, "Portland" pays homage to the eponymous city, "Looks Like Rain" has a bluegrass sound and tasty treats with a story of grace 'tornado chasing' in a place like Oklahoma where she used to live with such natural phenomena, "The Ground She Walks On" is a remarkable 'murder ballad', "No Goodbyes" is yet another (but still valid) way to America in the footsteps of Woody Guthrie and Jack Kerouac, "Glory Days" is a mix of nostalgia and hope, like "All The Pretty America" where the desire is to believe in a nation more open and tolerant. Well, Roses Guide to Time Travel is a disc whose lyrics are notable for wit and wisdom, and whose music moves between a pleasant vein of solid songwriting and country-tinged roots and folk.

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