College News Reviews "A Plea For Dreamland" -- 2009-07-22

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to juggle
the countless “good looking guy with an acoustic guitar” acts on
today’s music scene. I cannot tell you how many John Mayer and Jason
Mraz songs I flip away from on my radio just because of their
over-saturation. I’m fairly fed up with it.

So imagine my surprise when I find myself listening to and enjoying
Jason Myles Goss, a folk / Americana singer raised in Hopedale,
Massachusetts who’s a good looking guy with an acoustic guitar.

Not the common folk artist, Jason’s vocals have a dusky blues hitch
with the timbre of Bob Dylan. Coincidentally, Jason even reminisces on
his website about Sunday drives during the summer with his father who
would smoke cigars and play Dylan’s records.

Goss’s June-released album A Plea For Dreamland proves there
is still room on the stage for acoustic-equipped songsters, as long as
they bring something new to the table, which Goss does in spades,
drawing from a wider pool of musical influences and writing more
sincere, cliche-lacking lyrics.

My absolute favorite track on the disc is “Mississippi Red,” a
smooth groove about a woman whose taken a few too many wrong turns with
the wrong kind of men. Filled with light electric guitar riffs and
finely tuned bass lines, “Red” owns a distinct sound worthy of repeat
listens.

Goss doesn’t stop there however, with an eclectic track list giving his third album more than enough legs to stand on.

“There’s a Light Up Ahead” has a distinctly Dylan-like feel with its
introspective “down but not out” lyrics. “Dive Bars,” as suggested by
its title, deals with the inhabitants and drunken feelings of those
dim-lighted establishments. “Coffee and Wine” belongs in a blues
saloon, with its piano foundation and strumming bass.

Jason slows things down for tracks like “June” and “Brooklyn,”
giving the album further depth and emotion--and by that I mean the
ladies will love them.

Now, I run away from anything that even remotely sounds like
Christian music, but Goss drops in religious references to Judas and
the angel Gabriel to propel his lyrics and song-writing, not for any
ulterior motive or message. There’s a huge difference between using
religion and preaching religion. Thankfully, Goss never strays into the
latter category.

With over fifty minutes of music spread over fourteen tracks, A Plea For Dreamland
takes the best aspects of blues, rock, country and folk and merges them
together. You can pick up all his albums off his website or on iTunes.