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Some people measure life in years. Dave Coleman measures it in moments. And capturing the impact of a moment is what the singer, guitarist and principal songwriter of The Coal Men set out to do on Beauty Is a Moment, the band's second full-length release.
Along with drummer Dave Ray and bassist Hitch Hitchcock, Coleman recorded Beauty at producer/engineer Brian Carter's Paradox Studios in rural Murfreesboro, Tennessee, not far from where the band was founded in 1999. "It's such a comfortable little house; it's like going to Grandma's," Recording Beauty took just seven days in the studio, amid Carter's collection of vintage amplifiers, tube pre-amps, microphones and a 16-track Ampex analog tape machine. "It was all done on analog so there's not a lot of changing once it's down. You kind of have to live with it and accept it for what it is, a musical moment," Coleman says. Releasing October 16, the record spans the band's full range of capabilities, from delicate acoustic stylings to straight-out rock, with a touch of country twang.
Longtime friends Coleman, Ray and Hitch brought in Chris Frame (Son Volt) on guitar and Jen Gunderman (The Jayhawks, Dag) on keyboards. Together, they perform with the assurance of musicians who've spent many a long night together - "one of Music City's strongest, nerviest rock acts," according to The Tennessean music critic Peter Cooper. However, the album ultimately rests on the songs which show a definite maturing for Coleman, who signed with Acuff/Rose Publishing at 20. Now 26 years old, Coleman laughs when it's pointed out how many of his songs come from the wry viewpoint of the underdog. "Songwriting becomes therapy. When things are going great, rarely do I write a song about it."
Experience brings some hard lessons, as on the gentle "The Way You Needed Love” (co-written with Robert Reynolds), examining feelings that linger years after the end of a relationship, and "Cleveland Sky," written about a balloon festival Coleman played in Cleveland, Oklahoma. "Because it was in Oklahoma, the winds blew the balloons to a different town," he recalls. "I guess when you go ballooning, there's no telling where you're going to end up. But I like that analogy to a relationship: even if you have a really good direction, you never really know where it's going to go." “All the Same” is a rejection of a culture that keeps requiring more to be satisfied. "Everybody just wants it to be so full-throttle all the time," Coleman explains. "Everything's got to be so damn entertaining and so damn beautiful. Whenever you see something with subtlety, like a live show with dynamic range, or hear a song with a little depth, its hard to cut through to people who are bashed over the head with volume-up-to-10 entertainment... everything can start to sound the same." On Beauty Is a Moment, The Coal Men prove that beautiful doesn't have to be full-throttle. The band is fully capable of turning it up to 10, but they can also roll down the volume a notch to round out a solid roots-rock record reminiscent of The Jayhawks' glory days. To be sure, folks are watching and listening with bated breath as a new alt-country band emerges from Nashville obscurity into mainstream rock.
