I don’t know what this Philly rocker has been up to over the past two plus decades, but whatever he’s doing, it has added up to an impressive, well-produced, beautifully crafted statement. If I had to make a comparison, I’d firmly put this music in the Petty/Springsteen fold. Hazard’s songs (and the production and arrangements) hold up to the best of what Tom and Bruce have to offer.
The thing about Troubadour is that it has resonance. For me, resonance is that intangible quality that many collections of songs aspire to, but few deliver. It is the quality that makes you want to hear an album over and over, picking up something new with every listen. Part of this is performance, part of it is song-craft and part of it is production. We all have our favorites, the desert island discs, the ones that speak to us in some kind of subliminal code, the ones we listen to late at night or early in the morning.
There’s a lot of music I listen to in the moment or at a certain time of my life. I’m sure you do the same thing. But then there’s that handful of records that I cherish now and forever. Robert Hazard’s Troubadour might not reach such a lofty place in my musical pantheon, but it shares many qualities with the albums that have taken up residence there. Time will tell.
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