This City Will Never Drown: A review of Ben de la Cour’s “To The River Rise”

by John G. Larson With his second album, “To The River Rise,” singer/songwriter Ben de la Cour proves that New Orleans was and always will be a refuge for the musically inclined.  

To The River Rise is an emotionally driven record. The lyrics (deeply personal and recounting tales of years on the road), are delivered in a fragile tone, as if the lightest breeze could topple the words. The bare bones instrumentation, consisting of understated acoustic guitar and the occasional fuzzed-out electric or mandolin, bring de la Cour’s voice front and center.  With a phrasing style reminiscent of Joni Michell and the delivery of a young Bruce Cockburn, To The River Rise unfurls a song cycle in which a mood is created not by individual tracks, but by experiencing the work as a whole.

There is an underlying sadness to the set.  Within the understated instrumentation and de la Cour’s baritone voice, lie stark, haunting songscapes: moody recollections that recount the journey of a  life that is not always pretty, but proves better than one of mundane predictability.

This is not the stuff of sunny days at the park. Rather, it’s an album made for late night listening with a bottle or a friend. As the songs quietly reveal themselves over the course of 41 minutes, one can close their eyes and imagine hearing them in their element: a dive bar where the knucklehead factor is low and the people, who came to hear music, quietly sway as it washes over them.