Devil Talking - DAVID MYLES

On this record Devil Talking, David Myles cuts loose, bares his soul, and leaves it all on the table. The New Brunswick-based song and dance man has never been one to shy away from heavy topics like love, loss, and faith, but over his career he's tried his best to stay positive. Amongst the soulful, bluesy, rockin', and countrified grooves of Devil Talking, Myles knocks down the walls he's constructed to protect his vulnerable self, and instead dives headlong into what makes him—and all of us—human: suffering, and all the many ways we cope with it. Aptly, the album contains some of Myles' most intimate and honest songwriting, buoyed by the liberating power of accepting your flawed self. He's grown fond of calling Devil Talking his sinnin' record. Look no further than the title track for an acute introduction to a side of David Myles you may have only caught a glimpse of at a particularly rollicking live show. He wastes no time taking the advice of the pitchfork-wielding character on his shoulder, espousing the benefits of rolling and reeling on the weekend like a preacher possessed. The driving anthem "Break Free" finds him getting honest about the lies he's told to protect himself, and on "Twenty One," Myles' world-class band creates a shadowy vibe to set the scene for a tragic tale about a young man's past catching up with him well after he's turned a new leaf. Even when Devil Talking gets deep into its weightier subject matter, there's a lightness and inspired verve about the sound of it that abounds, as if Myles and the band feel certain that if one of them were to fall, the others would be there to pick them up. That's the result of a special camaraderie between these collaborators—Dean Drouillard, Asa Brosius, Leith Fleming-Smith, Reeny Smith, Alan Jeffries, Logan Richard, and Ray Legere—that's developed over the years. Joshua Van Tassel, an indispensable co-conspirator and multi-hyphenate, handled percussion, mixed, and co-produced the album alongside Myles.