INTERVIEW: Jay Van Raalte
What would happen if you took Tom Petty’s straightforward narrative songwriting and combined it with the dramatic flair of The Killers and The Edge’s economical approach to music? In all likelihood, someone or something like Jay Van Raalte. The Charleston-born musician may have dabbled in styles as diverse as old-school blues and folk/country, musical theater and modern rock, but three things have remained constant throughout their musical career: thoughtful guitar playing, perceptive songwriting, and a strict attention to detail and arrangement. Linearity, the first album by the Reverend Guitars artist, displays all of this. Van Raalte plays practically every instrument on the self-produced EP, but a hard-hitting power trio, Jay Van Raalte and The Spectrum, brings the songs to life live and offers a solid basis for Jay’s fiery guitar playing.
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