If the Kerry Spitzer sounds hoarse on Swan Songs, it’s neither an affectation nor an ironic gesture. It lends what looks to be the final album from the Kenosha singer-songwriter some of its poignance. Decades of cigarettes, blues-rock singing and exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam have left him with a roughness mostly not present on his three earlier albums.
As Songs’ title implies, this is the last recording Spitzer was able to make before his voice declined to where he thought better of using it any longer. Though he had 40 songs at the ready, he was only able to commit 14 to CD (oddly enough, the same number of songs on each of his previous three albums).
The circumstances surrounding its creation may draw sympathy, but Spencer delivers songwriting and instrumentation that don't require pity to appreciate them. Listeners might wish he could have splurged for real brass on the soul-inflected selections here instead of synthetic facsimiles; but his largely solo-recorded, mostly folk and blues offerings speak poetically, if frankly, of the reconciliations, reckonings and resignations of a life closing in on its final chapter. Though written from his own experience, many of Spitzer’s Songs could be easily adapted to the narrative voices of other folkies and, in a few cases here, aspiring or established pop and country/Americana singers as well.
If the remaining 26 songs he intended to record of similar quality as what's heard here, Spitzer could do worse than to find a sympathetic publisher, allowing other performers to bring to life his artistry in ways he is now unable.
