Universally Grounded

Lost & Found (Independent)

Dewey Kincade

By David Lilly

At first glance, Louisville's Dewey Kincade looks like a cross between a younger David Johansen and Steve Earle. At times his sound evokes a collaboration between R.E.M. and Steve Forbert. He introduces himself on this CD of songs from the 1990s and late '80s with "Take It For a Ride," which is musically reminiscent - but not a rip-off - of the Rolling Stone's "Beast of Burden," followed by "Can't Afford to Lose a Friend," which recalls R.E.M.'s "Find The River." But it isn't that he's stealing from anyone and putting his name on it - those artists are just some comparisons he's worthy of. Kincade is introspective at times and can play good blues. He wouldn't be called the next so-and-so, but he evokes each of those artists at different times. All the songs on Lost & Found are originals.

Among the highlights is a story of transcendence and real friendship in "Can't Afford to Lose a Friend." When the protagonist is rejected as a lover, he rebounds to assure the woman, "I know that I can't stick around/but I'll be there when your ship goes down/and if you need some sympathy/well you should know/you can always call on me." At the end of "Lost and Found," the singer knows he has potential for goodness but has taken some wrong turns. To his credit, he acknowledges the damage he does to himself with the lines "I'm the villain/a master of deceit/and I'm the victim/ the one I always cheat." A glimpse into a dysfunctional relationship in "Beggar's Paradise" observes that "You want to save her/but you can't...clean up the mess/and she don't want you/she's madly in love with her pain/But that won't stop you/from laying your rose at her feet/you're just like her `cept you're madly in love with defeat."

While this music isn't for everyone, my hunch is that it is for an awful lot of folks. After all, Kincade is good and it isn't hard to imagine him onstage at Austin City Limits.