Sometimes a whole song turns on one suggestion from the bass player. Robert Allen, the writer and producer behind Tom’s River’s DownTown Mystic, was stuck on which rhythmic direction to take “Maybe Love’s A Crime” when bassist Paul Page, who has played with Dion, floated the idea of a shuffle. Allen has always been a big Dion fan, so he knew exactly what was being pointed at. The single comes out on October 9th through The Orchard/Sony Music.
That shuffle was laid down by Page and drummer Steve Holley, whose credits include Paul McCartney’s Wings, Elton John and Ian Hunter, and according to the press materials they got it in a single take. Keyboardist Jeff Levine, who has worked with Joe Cocker and Hall & Oates, adds a piano part that the release singles out as the highlight. The single also comes with a TV Mix as its second song, which makes sense for a project that, by its own count, has music on more than 250 shows and films, including The Voice and American Pickers.
The wider sound is what DownTown Mystic has stuck to for a while: vintage guitars, analog recording, and storytelling songs in the line of Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen, with Buffalo Springfield and Rockpile named as reference points. Allen puts it simply: “I grew up listening to all these great records and their sound and style stayed with me.” A shuffle feel with a veteran rhythm section and a piano player of Levine’s background fits that approach, and it leans toward the rootsier, blues-tinged end of the genre tags attached to this release.
Next on the calendar is October 13th, when the song reaches US college radio with promotion from Brandon Day at Tinderbox Music. A video for “Maybe Love’s A Crime” is already up on YouTube, and a bigger release follows, with On E Street Remix – The Album, six new tracks, scheduled for Black Friday on November 27th. For a single built on a groove cut in one take by players with this much road behind them, it’s a sensible way to set up what comes next.
