Album Review : Duane Rutter : Waiting Room (2007)

Oct 25, 2010 Album Reviews
Posted by George Douglas

When I first heard Waiting Room by Duane Rutter it was like finding an album by a really good 70’s singer-songwriter that somehow I’d missed. It’s a cohesive album, that is an album as opposed to a collection of songs with disparate themes and styles. It flows, it’s easy, and there is a slight feeling of melancholy that runs through it. Although it is a debut album, it sounds more like the fifth or sixth album of a distinct and mature voice that has been filtered through the charcoal of life.

Duane and Dan Walsh produced the album and it was recorded and mixed at Dan’s place near Port Dover, Ontario. Waiting Room was recorded the year before Dan teamed up with Brock Zeman for The Bourbon Sessions, (which should be familiar to faithful Broken Jukebox readers). It was at a Brock and Dan gig in my hometown that I met Duane when he showed up at his Busted Flat Records label-mates with his just released album. He gave me a copy of Waiting Room that night and it was a few days later that I first listened to it. I’ve listened to it hundreds of times since and it has become one of my favorite albums of all time. The writing, singing and production of this record is a standard that I use to judge work by new and established artists by.

The disc opens with “I Waited For You”, which Duane has said was inspired by waiting for his teenage son to come home but I find the lyrics are poetic and wistful and more suggestive of waiting for a lover. Duane and Dan both play acoustic guitar on this one and Dan also plays the drums and dobro on it. Cindy Dell and Jenn Ryckmann add some harmony vocal work that is exquisite and the overall sound and feel of this song draws you in to the album like a door opening to a cabin on a wintry night.

Next up is “If You Loved Her That Much” with the same players and a melody that sticks in your head for days. It closes with the admonishment, “you should have told her”. The third song, “Again For You“ is full of melancholy images and self-realization of someone tending to a dying loved one. “Rachel Sings”,  features lovely harmony vocals from Lee Anne Wesseling and laments those folks we only see at weddings and funerals, despite always meaning to get together.

The 7^th track, “Goodnight Amy” is my favorite tune on this album. It finds a musician confessing pat transgressions and sins from the road, while his wife sleeps. It mines the grey area of wanting to come clean about something, giving weak reasons or justifications, but still too fearful to live with the repercussions of a full admission. He manages to hide behind the artist’s camouflage of “it’s just a song”.

The last track listed on the album is ” I Believe I’ll Take a Walk” which has the rare distinction of having a listing for Dan Walsh as “Harmony voice”! I just re-read the lyrics and I think the protagonist in the song is contemplating suicide. The song ends with the sound of a needle on an LP then goes into the hidden track “Kitchen Table Blues” which features Canadian Blues wunderkind Alfie Smith tearing it up with Duane and Dan. In this song, Duane describes himself as “a has-been who never was”. One spin of this album should dispel that notion for any listener.

I’ve been lucky enough to be able to see Duane play several times over the last couple of years, and usually pretty close to home here in southern Ontario. He does have a day job, like many talented musicians, to pay the bills, so the touring has to be done within those confines. Do yourself a favor and order a copy from Busted Flat Records’ home page or download it on itunes.

Tags: album review, Brock Zeman, dan walsh, Duane Rutter