“Townes Van Getty”
Darkness Hides
Los Angeles, CA
(Self-released)
Trading in a the muscle of a rock band, Aaron Kyle steps away from fronting California indie darlings, Le Switch, for a singer/songwriter’s tenderness on his solo debut, Darkness Hides. Tender, yes, but in no way weak – Kyle’s songwriting (now under the moniker Geronimo Getty) is sharp and expressive with a conviction befitting the Americana roots he aspires to.
Kyle’s rock background peaks through often enough, with some great Mike Campbell-esque electric guitar accents, but it’s largely a traditionalist affair. Within that tradition though, Kyle entirely eschews one pillar of Americana for another, entirely forsaking characters and story songs for personal introspections. And these are as earnest as they come on standouts like the outlaw-country brooding of the title track and the lovelorn acoustics of “Dear Lover.”
With a weary baritone smacking of Townes Van Zandt (and a touch of nasal Jonathan Richman) Kyle’s voice seems genetically engineered to plead over a whining fiddle ballad or achingly falter over a country lover’s lament. And like Van Zandt before him, he doesn’t need great range to get his point across. It’s always been more important in the American folk tradition to wring a feeling out of your voice rather than virtuosity, and Kyle wrings out plenty on this solid debut.
Mixed by Jeff Halbert
Produced by Aaron Kyle and Christopher Harrison