Lee Baggett - Echo Me On (2023)

If a piano player can be said to have taken on the mantle of JJ Cale, Lee Baggett would be the man and Echo Me On would be the album. Born in the Philippines, he is a reedy-voiced surfer who caught the waves in San Francisco while teaching the tunes to his band over the course of his time at Juniper House in October of 2022.

It seems as if the grooves have been sprinkled with fairy dust because these tunes, while low-key, are also totally alive. Exuding a casual confidence, the album feels like ideas have been snatched from the air fully formed. There is a sense of spontaneity to songs like “Ship of Dreams,” yet the piano and string arrangement make it clear that this could never have been the case.

Baggett’s lyrics are the essence of simplicity, but that never comes that easily. “Swing on a tire swing/ Swinging through the open door/ Swinging on a memory of you and me.” Set to guitars that ring of simple truths at a volume that emphasizes every moment, one wonders how anyone can say so much with such an effortless grace.

Moments get framed in ways that bring songs to life. A carnival midway is the location for “Zipper Ride.” Electric guitars play sparse, nearly perfect phrases while Baggett relates love in ways that hit the nail on the head without singing much above a whisper. “I see you there in your peppermint dress/ oils gonna boil on the dirty road/ lights of the midway gonna turn to gold.” It’s not so much what he says as what doesn’t need to be sung; you just take it in like the warm summer sun.

From a haltingly tickled piano, “Weeds & Flowers” comes into focus in unexpected ways. Opening with, “Even weeds turn to flowers/ flowers turn to weeds/ sprinkles turn to showers/ showers turn to seas.” Expecting that things will become much heavier, what follows turns a phrase and heads somewhere else. “babies turn to teenagers/ and then they turn to women and men/ as the old they get to the edge/ and it all comes back around.” Yet rather than being about the circle of life, the song turns on a phrase that may seem hard to swallow, yet as he relates a beam of kindness changes everything.

It’s almost too easy to take Lee Baggett for granted. Everything goes down so smoothly that his songs take you by surprise. What seems simple begins to amaze. “Echo Me On” was one of the last few offerings of 2023, which makes it all the more special.