Young talent can be dangerous thing to praise. On one hand, you have a young musician whose musical prowess is undeniable and you want to expose that talent in the hopes that others can experience it. On the other hand, you have to be careful at how much praise you give. After all, the musician is obliviously young and at the beginning of their career; the odds of them being able to progress with their music and make a profound impact are somewhat daunting. So what route do you take? Listening to The Milkman's Union, I am pretty confident in taking the former route.
The Milkman's Union is Henry Jamison-Root, a youth of only eighteen years whose talent is an absolute treat to listen to. While it may be a risk to say such a lofty statement, Root may very well be in the Commander Venus stage of his musical career, destined for greatness in the near future if the right pieces fall into place. His second full-length effort, Oh Boy, is certainly a step in the right direction, and only time will tell how far Root's talent will take him.
Oh Boy is pop orientated at its core, but with dashes of a lonely country twang and a lively folk atmosphere, and with viola and piano thrown in for good measure, there really is no set style of music being played. This music is you and the girl you met last week and fell in love with on your first date at county fair, head up staring at the starry sky as fireworks explode in the distance. This is you and that girl a few months later, no longer on speaking terms but still thinking about each other. This is the music of a young man who can tell a story of an average day, add some bells and a guitar, and turn it into something beautiful.
As stated above, The Milkman's Union is a storyteller at heart, easily able to intertwine the sorrow and hope that is a youth's life with drum and guitar beats that would make the One AM Radio proud. Musically each song has something new to offer, from the piano based "Tomato" to the drum-tapping, violin filled "The City and the Country." Root plays the majority of these instruments himself, doing the drum programming as well as playing the obvious acoustic guitar. His songs are of the most basic subject, singing about a seemingly insignificant event that occurred in his life and turning it into a song with highs, lows, climaxes and resolutions. The stand out track in an album full of gems is "The City and the Country," a pretty and upbeat song featuring Root's mom singing along in the chorus. Root's storytelling ability is no more apparent here, as he sings:
Well you were in the kitchen reading about the war. So I came in and kissed you when it began to pour. So we stayed in our pj's and slept a little more, while the trees blew outside in the storm.
My main goal behind reviewing this album is to hopefully be able to spread the word about The Milkman's Union in the hopes that he will begin to get noticed and begin to take off. His talent is so readily available that it reaches to everyone I have played a song for, and they have all sung his praises. My roommate, who has horrible taste in music and considers Journey to be one of his favorite bands, loves The Milkman's Union. My 58-year-old dad likes The Milkman's Union. I don't really see how you can't enjoy this music. My only hope is that Oh Boy is just the beginning of Root, and I'm looking forward to following his musical endeavors in the future. But regardless of what the past holds, Oh Boy is in the now, demanding to be heard. Just listen and see what happens.
