John Savage's new album 'Empty Spaces' touches several genres and celebrates Bills Mafia

When a track on your new album is a tune written to walk your daughter down the aisle for her wedding (“Tears That Flow”), it’s appropriate to apply the traditional wedding mantra “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.”

Let’s see if John Savage checked all those boxes on his new record, “Empty Spaces.”

Something old? OK, that one’s easy. Half of the songs on the CD have been running through John’s brain, in one form or another, since the ‘80s and ‘90s.

The new is the new technology that enabled the initial tracks, overdubs, final vocals and solo instruments to be recorded at Savage’s home, the drums and bass tracked at drummer Darryl Mattison’s “Grasshopper Studio” and all tracks mixed and mastered at Malcolm Parker’s studio, where Malcolm arranged, produced and recorded additional drum parts.

“We would send .wav files back and forth over the Internet, typically late at night” recalls John. “It’s an amazing time to be making music.”

Borrow? John showed the good sense to borrow the talents of several well-seasoned musician friends, including the aforementioned Mattison, together with his long-time battery-mate bassist Dan Porter, New York State blues hall of famer slide wizard George Deveny, multi-instrumentalist Tim Baldwin; ex-bandmate Robin Stone on keys, guitarist Ed Byron and the man of many talents, Malcolm Parker.

Savage has been performing in the Utica area dating back to the duo/band Savage Stone in the early ‘80s. He ran a successful project studio in the 90s in Waterville, where he recorded his eponymous 6 track EP.

Then, as so often happens, life got in the way and interrupted his recording career.

Until now.

The album alternates between roots, Americana and country. Savage mentions as one of his influences John Prine, and that influence is felt throughout, particularly in the amusing “Swamp Song” and the tribute to the party house we all had growing up, “Bad Boys.”

I’m always intrigued when I find a dichotomy in a song between words and music, where the feel of the music seems at odds with the lyrical content but somehow it still works.

We find two examples here: In "Empty Spaces," where the somber themes of the death of a sibling and the growing disability of a parent are offset by a bouncy reggae arrangement; and, in the opposite extreme, in “Plastic Friends," where a comfortably mellow musical background accompanies an acerbic, profanity-laced revenge song.

“'Walk With Me' was rejected as the wedding aisle song in favor of “Tears That Flow,” but not through any deficiency in the song; I just think the wedding party might have felt awkward doing a dignified procession to a calypso accompaniment."

OK, I can hear you now: “You haven’t mentioned the something blue.”

Sorry, folks, I’m going with his look at the trials and tribulations of fans of hard-luck sports teams, “Bills Mafia.” I can’t think of many things “bluer” these days.

The CD is available on all the streaming platforms and physical CDs are available for dinosaurs like me.

This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Utica musician John Savage returns with new album, "Empty Spaces"