Michael Reynolds

Tarnished Nickel Sky

Blue Elan Records

Twenty years ago, Michael Reynolds was lead vocalist and songwriter for the acclaimed alt-county band Pinmonkey. He quit the music business ten years ago but never quit writing songs. “Tarnished Nickel Sky” is his debut on Blue Elan and marks his unexpected and triumphant return. All of the songs by Reynolds are haunting tone poems of restless winds, faded memories, broken dreams, and all-too-human yearning. The album is produced by the Grammy Award winning Ray Kennedy whose credits include Steve Earle, and Lucinda Williams.

The ensemble includes electric and acoustic guitarist Joshua Grange; pedal-steel guitarist Dan Dugmore; bassist Steve Mackey, and drummer Fred Eltringham. Background vocalists include Shelly Fairchild, Anthony Crawford or Siobhan Maher Kennedy. The album was mostly engineered, mixed and mastered by Kennedy at the Room & Board Studio for Drifter’s Church Productions. Special thanks go to Kirk Pasich at Blue Elan.

The lead track is “Three Days” as Reynolds sings “three days, wasted, broke, and thumbing for a ride, three days, that melted like the tarnished nickel skies, three days, that whisper back in haunting lullabies, three days, and redemption draweth nigh…my only crown, a halo forged of dust from this dried-up town, a little bit of whiskey could sure help wash a hard day down. On “Where The Crossroads Meet” Reynolds chimes “did you ever think about it, ever try to live without it, or did you come into this world already too far gone, out there where the crossroads meet, you had the whole world at your feet, you could’ve had anything, but you chose to be alone”.

“Take Me Down” follows with Reynolds vocalizing “I left home at seventeen, prettiest boy that you’d ever seen, living on the road, hitching for my rides, but when you’re ridin’ free, you pay the highest price…take me down, all the way to Birmingham, call all my friends and have ’em come around”. “Can’t You Hear Jerusalem Moan”, “go down on your knees and pray”.

On “26 Horses”, Reynolds chants “I’ll bring you 26 horses to ride…ten times the sky and twice as high…mind the whiskey and keep the gin, stay right and you won’t go wrong, sell your soul for an ounce of sin”. “Fades”, “everyday a little more of you fades”. “Southern Boy”, “I’ll be a southern boy ’til my dying day, I got money but I still got a poor man’s taste for home made wine”.

“Two Hours From Jackson”, “haulin’ freight wherever I’m told, but what weighs on my mind, is what I leave behind, and that’s always the heaviest load, but I’m two hours from Jackson, and Mama I’ll be home today, I’ve been out here too long, and I’m so tired of livin’ this way”. On “So Many Trains” Reynolds groans “so many trains still haunt these long forgotten tracks…I hauled cotton to the Carolines, and I hauled coal from the Kentucky mines, cross the country to Californ-i-a, and I told my love I’d be back some day, that silver rail goes on and on, I never made it home”.

On “The Whiskey Goes Down Easy”, Reynolds belts out “I’m dizzy sometimes, with how life can turn, seems I know less the more I learn, the world get’s crazy, Oh, and I do my part, Oh, the whiskey goes down easy but I come down hard”. On the closer “Sweet Blossom” Reynolds chirps “sweet blossom grew upon my window sill, born on the vine like a morning chill, left in this world with all the time to kill, I wish I’d never known her, never really known her”.

About “Tarnished Nickel Sky” Michael Reynolds states “I think about all the time I’d spent haunting Music Row trying to accomplish something…every trend that came along felt like chains that held me down. Letting go of my expectations…was the most freeing thing I’ve ever done”. Reynolds adds that the experience of writing and recording “Tarnished Nickel Sky” makes him feel proud and new again.

Richard Ludmerer

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