CD Review

Authentic.  It is a word that singer-songwriters either are naturally or strive toward their whole life, A.A. Bondy has it.   His album American Hearts garnered some buzz at the end of 2007, but is being re-released on Fat Possum Records now with hopes of gaining the wider audience that these songs deserve.  Bondy and American Hearts are steeped in southern mysticism that is hard to pin down; thoughts on Jesus seem to swing from satirical (“Rapture, Sweet Rapture”) to serious (“American Hearts”) as AA seems to be wrestling with the heavens, an act many can identify with. 

A poetic yearning over takes Bondy on “There’s a Reason” and “World Without End” which has his “heart pumping blood in 3/4th’s time.” The album takes a back-porch-sunset-sing-along vibe on “Lover’s Waltz” before moving to bleak desperation concerning current war times in “Witness Blues”.  Electric guitars blend with harmonicas on the spinning “No Man Shall” which deals with addiction – plainly a topic also addressed expertly and acoustically on “Vice Rag.”  When it comes down to brass tax, though, the title track represents the album and Bondy’s best, American Hearts is sweeping and simple, hardened by the world and softened by love, rooted in the soil of the south yet cosmic, Authentic.