On the Road with Fred

DANIEL HUTCHENS - Love Songs for Losers
September 29, 2006

To many, Daniel Hutchens is amongst, if not the, single greatest of the obscure songwriters in this modern age.  His songs are met with mixed critical acclaim (you love them, or hate them), yet no one would dare rate his work anywhere near average.  Love Songs for Losers, his second collection of solo material apart from his longtime band Bloodkin, was recorded this past spring at Dave Barbe's studio in Athens, and is the inaugural release of the new Autumn Tone label.

Most of the songs on this CD are newly penned, reflecting events of Hutchens recent life.  These includes "Underground Café, 1923," a reflective piece that well could have easily been written by Mark Twain early in the 20th century; and "Unconditional," a song of a man experiencing a vibrant new love, filled with hope an possibility.  Other tracks were written throughout Hutchen's career, and are finally seeing the light of day on this new release.  These include 'Red Velvet Cake," "Sacrifice," and the tear-jerking "Rock Back Home," about the longing of a man living the hard life of the road, serenading his love back home.

Love Songs for Losers is filled songs of love, both current and of days gone by; good times mixed with sad; joyous heartbreak and misery.  There may be love today, yet you know you'll eventually come down, a fact Hutchens never overlooks.  Along with the possibility of love, he also songs of that looming air of despair, the haunting knowledge that good times enjoyed now will not last, and tears will once again fill the eyes and the heart.

Love Songs for Losers is definitively Danny, a must have for anyone that has ever enjoyed even a single verse from the vast catalogue of this musical Mark Twain for the 21st century… "just like an addiction, that you ain't sure you really want to kick."

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