Ball of Wax 61 Songs: Kevin Suggs – “The Cuts”

Did you ever wonder what the world would be like today if ’50s sock hop music had been as interested in environmental stewardship as it was in where, oh where, could one’s baby be? Okay, neither had I until listening to Kevin Suggs’s contribution to BoW Volume 61 while on a walk through a small woods near my house. “The Cuts” opens with familiar and nostalgic bass and guitar lines that would put any Boomer at ease. The playing and production are sublime, which should come as no surprise considering Kevin Suggs’s résumé includes names Brandi Carlile, Cat Power, The Dusty 45’s, Eddie Vedder, The Shins, and The Walkabouts. The first hint that this track is not simply a stroll down memory lane comes with the recitation of a series of musical terms. A pedal steel guitar interlude then transports us to a sleepy coastal town where we are introduced to a wise young fisherman. A doo woppy chorus and some heavily reverbed guitars and vocals move us further on up the road to a farm on a fertile plain, into the city, and across time. “The Cuts” is chilling in its beauty and heart warming in the images that Kevin Suggs conjures. It is good to know where one’s baby is. I do wish that we could set the clocks back and dance into that golden age to teach past generations more about the impact their concrete and metal plans will have today.