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Stephen Fearing is one of those artists that people hear at one point and remark on how good sounding he is; both his voice and his instrumentation. They promise themselves to check him out at a later point but then promptly forget to. This promise is only remembered upon hearing Fearing again. This is unfortunate for the career of Fearing who, by the excellent quality of his work, should be far more popular then he is. Fearing's latest CD, So Many Miles; combines live recordings of shows taped in April 2000 at the Trazac Club in Toronto. Most musicians would say that they achieve a certain level of excellence when recording live which is difficult to achieve in the studio. So Many Miles is no exception.
Fearing has been producing folk and similar genre music for almost twenty years. His first CD, Stephen Fearing (The Yellow Rose) was released in 1986. He followed this up with Out To Sea (1988), Blue Line (1990), and The Assassin's Apprentice (1994). In 1996, he was a founding member of the folk group Blackie & the Rodeo Kings. This group quickly became a Canadian folk favorite. He is probably best known for being a member of that trio. In 1997, he released the very successful CD, Industrial Lullaby. Fearing has maintained his links with Blackie and the Rodeo Kings while sustaining his successful solo career as well. With the release of So Many Miles, he has utilized what many of his fans state as his greatest strengths, his ability to create an intimate setting with his audience and his acoustic skills.
So Many Miles consists of the bare essentials that lead to more then the sum of their parts. These being an audience, a guitar and incredible lyrics sung by the voice of Stephen Fearing. He takes many of his hits from his prior creations and gives them a certain poignancy that lasts throughout the approximately seventy minutes on the CD. All of the songs but "Thrasher"; a Neil Young song were penned by Fearing and he gives us his all in these. Upon listening to these, one closes one's eyes and focuses in on the intense feelings that lay behind the lyrics of his songs.
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The CD begins with his hit, "Blind Indifference" from his last release, Industrial Lullaby. This is about how one can look repeatedly but never see what is actually there. It grabs you and forces to accept that some people that should get along often do not. You can tell from listening to it that Fearing has seen this too often. On this tune, his unique ability to tell a tale with his voice's emotion being the main purveyor of the truth shines through. Another gem is "The Longest Road". This is a paean for a Canada that he has had to leave more then once. Fearing's love for the nation is well expressed in this expansively expressed song.
Fearing continues through the set, using the distinct high quality of his voice and lyrics to give expression to the high and low points that everyone goes through in life. He is a storyteller using his guitar and singing voice to tell all of his life. This reviewer experienced a wave of nostalgia upon hearing "The Lark/Robert's Waterloo". In this instrumental came the theme from CBC's The Friendly Giant, a show that I had grown up on and one that I still clearly remember. For an instant, I was moved back to age of six and was waiting for the Giant to move the chairs closer together. If that is not music evoking a reaction, I do not know what is.
Stephen Fearing has had some hard knocks in life. He has been poverty stricken and gone through divorce. He also has created some of the best folk music in Canada. One could say that he has traveled many miles in the voyage of life. It is to his credit and our fortune that he has transformed this trip into the product So Many Miles. This release is one that I am prepared to spend a lot of mileage with and so should you.
By Dan Sanford, CanEHdian.com 2001
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