Singer/Songwriter Steven MacDonald Releases New Album

The new album by singer/songwriter Steven MacDonald introduces audiences around the globe to a style of play that some could say was formulated by legends long ago. The richly textured sound of Americana is still as radiant as it has ever been, but now it’s refined under the direction of a polished production that leaves no detail unrevised. The centerpiece of this record is its connective melodies, which shed the pop-friendly rigidity of contemporary folk and replace it with an eclectic, patient humbleness that is hard not to fall in love with. Stacked high with eight unique tracks featuring a litany of memorable verses, guitar salvos, and percussive breakdowns, Stepping Out of Time is a standout crossover album in a year full of intriguing new releases.

Our focus is constantly being drawn to the harmony between the instrumentation and MacDonald’s singing in this LP, and nowhere is that more evidenced than in the grooves of “Down the River She Runs” and “The Love I’ve Known.” In these two slower songs, we venture into melancholic realms that would otherwise be somber and difficult to digest, but with MacDonald leading the way using his trademark reserved earnestness, the mood isn’t quite as crushing. The mix juxtaposes the lyrics and music purposely, particularly in more muscular songs like “A Rush” and the title track, but it’s not a jarring experiment in sonic cohesiveness. This concept works here because of the volume of intricacies these compositions feature; were MacDonald to not make full use of this stereo sound, the songs would feel so much more minuscule and subtle than they are.

The creative depth of the material we find in Stepping Out of Time is a staggering upgrade from similar works by far. I don’t think this man could have penned “A Rush” or the more pendulous “The Chords Wouldn’t Play” before now; in this record, he seems more confident and sure of his style of attack than most in his scene do. The music is as broadly distributed as the vocals are and in songs like “Any Port” or even a tune like “Empty Shell,” our attention is spread out all over the place rather than remaining transfixed on MacDonald’s lyrics. As far as I’m concerned this is one of the better-produced records I’ve heard this year, and it spotlights an artist who only needed the right moves behind the soundboard to come into his own.

Stepping Out of Time is full of folk swingers, and in their blustery twang, I see a glimpse into Steven MacDonald’s future. He’s got the charisma of an old-time storyteller and the sway that’s missing from the bulk of pop’s superstars nowadays, and that adds up to a level of success in the market that most folk musicians could only dream of attaining. MacDonald has the chops to do almost anything he wants to with this flexible sound he’s created out of the ashes of Americana’s once-dominant glory, and the melting pot of tonality that is Stepping Out of Time serves as hard proof of his immeasurable capabilities as an artist.

Mindy McCall