This Town - David Mallett

A folk/rock/pop effort that sometimes detours into pop-country, This Town showed Dave Mallet to be a thoughtful and expressive storyteller. Mallet was also an obscure storyteller -- this little known CD wasn't a huge seller by any means. But those who were lucky enough to hear it agreed that Mallet was someone who deserved a higher profile. The singer did much of the writing on This Town, and the stories that he tells are stories that stick with you. "Main Street" laments the commercialization of a small town, while "How Much More" and "Take the Time" question the fast-paced, rat-race lifestyle of the '90s. All of these songs sound quite personal to Mallett, who obviously has a great fondness for small-town America and yearns for a simpler, less hectic time. As far as influences go, he seems to have learned a few things from Gordon Lightfoot as well as Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard (even though this is far from a hardcore country album). But whatever his influences, Mallett is very much his own man. This Town is well worth searching for. ~ Alex Henderson, All Music Guide