CHALLENGE EXTRA Top 10 Q-BGLT Albums of 2015 by Bill Realman Stella
10. Sam Gleaves ~ Ain't We Brothers Gleaves can lay claim to the new voice of 2015, clear as mountain air, and bright as a brand new penny. Perfectly balanced between beautifully sung, arranged, and performed songs in the acoustic Appalachian Bluegrass / Country Folk traditions, and authentically real, openly Gay lyrics rarely heard in those traditions, Sam Gleaves' first album of primarily original songs is a tribute to love: Love of performing the music that has lodged itself deep within his heart, and music to express love for and about his heart's desire. "Ain't We Brothers", the title track, is a Country music story song with an activist's insight that the personal is political, and that connecting individuals working toward common goals builds community. Based on the true experience of a West Virginia Gay coal miner's struggle with harassment, the chorus is a call to our higher angels, grounded in nerve and sinew: "First things first, I’m a blue collar man/ With scars on my knuckles, dust on my hands./ You probably wouldn’t have ever known/ That I’ve got a man waiting on me at home./ To tell you the truth, I don’t want to fight,/ I just want to say one thing outright to you/ Ain’t we flesh and blood all through,/ And ain’t we brothers too?" That's a question that has to touch and melt the hardest heart. But the album's centerpiece is "The Golden Rule", featuring the album's producer and Grammy-winning Folk and Family music dynamo Cathy Fink. If I were a betting man I would say this song will become a surefire Top 10 surprise hit. Starting with a plaintive, churchy piano before launching into an uptempo singalong, the words dream aloud for equality and grace for all. "The Golden Rule"'s honest, naive message put to song would cut through all the pop electronica on the charts as a singular alternative. Gleaves faces us toward a better future, and gifts us that vision, gift wrapped as a throwback tied to the songs of brotherhood and peace of the 70s, 80 and 90s. Speaking of melting hearts, this here atheist wants nothing more than to give a return hug to the embrace of the lyrics "In my God’s Bible, you can read it all./ 'One who loves another, they have fulfilled the law.'/ When the hate is spoken, this I know is true:/ Do unto others as you’d have them do to you" "The Golden Rule" strikes a golden chord. Love of Bluegrass does not contradict Gay love. Rather, they beautifully compliment each other. Hear every track of Ain't We Brothers starting here.