Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

One has to listen a couple of times to Salvation Station, the sophomore effort by New World Son, to get the right idea about the disc. Soul and gospel have common roots, but it’s a bit of a surprise to hear a quartet of white boys from Niagara Falls, Ontario doing it. There’s a lot of blue-eyed sensibility to this --- accent on the blue-eyed, here --- closer, perhaps, to Billy Vera than Hall & Oates --- but these guys aren’t slumming; they’re feeling every note of it.

The music here is grounded in what you would expect to hear at a contemporary Christian worship service if it was taking place at a smoky tavern, uplifting and upbeat while filtered through a bar band sound. Sweet Holy Spirit reminds me of the type of swamp pop that used to fill the radio airwaves in the early 1960s --- Dale Broussard did secular tunes that sounded like this --- and the opening bars of Gimme is not dissimilar to Dyke & The Blazers’ “Funky Broadway.” There are two elements, however, that separate NewWorldSon and Salvation Station from similar inspirational and secular bands. The first is the musicianship. NewWorldSon, in a word, cook. Joel Parisen’s vocals are warm, distinctive and accessible, and his keyboard work is on a par with Josh Toal’s guitar work, Rich Moore’s bass stylings, and Mark Rogers’ in the pocket drumming. These guys sound like a band; you’d pay top dollar to see them in a blues club, I guarantee. The second element is the song composition, which is first rate. It sneaks up on you. I had, for whatever reason, expected…something else when I first put Salvation Station in the player, and it took a listen or two to get past my own expectations. Once I did, I’ve been listening to this disc over and over. I love older rock and soul, and Salvation Station taps right into that vein. Al Green did something similar, at least in spirit, in the 1980s with his series of brilliant Gospel albums. Waitin’ ’Til The Rapture Come on Salvation Station reminds me of those discs, even though it sounds nothing like Green; it still comes from that wellspring of salvation that gospel and soul and blues was drawn from.

Whatever your personal beliefs might be, there is something for everyone on Salvation Station. It’s a disc that has the potential to bring you back home seven days a week. Recommended.