File rodeo clown/bullfighter Kyle Yule under hardbitten romantic. The characters in his songs ride Greyhounds, bald-tire cars and wicked horses. They sleep down by the mission, die in back alleys, and enter the Pearly Gates, “old straw hat in hand.”
Yule’s voice — dusty-dry and gently weary — has the ability to invest his characters with the rough-hewn equanimity one hears in the vocals of an artist such as Billy Joe Shaver. There is some awkward phrasing here and there, but overall, Yule comes across as a singer governed by sincerity over artifice.
Regrettably, in several instances, Yule is crowded from his own songs by ornamentation — melodic but anomalous saxophone fills, crunchy pop-rock guitar riffs, and a mix that sometimes buries the singer behind the backup vocals. His voice is best presented in a clean acoustic frame, with some room for the wind to blow through. “Love I Hope To Find” is a perfect example: The clean arrangement of acoustic guitars and a chorus fattened only by an understated harmony vocal allows Yule’s voice to carry the song and the story with a sweet ease that evokes recent Chip Taylor.
“Lost In The Wind” is a touching piece in the tradition of “Desperadoes Waiting For A Train”, and “I Sang Dixie”; Yule’s voice conveys the “worn-out old cowboy” feel perfectly, but again, some of the guitar work seems intrusive. Still, when Yule — with both his pen and his voice — distills a woman’s desperate life as “Another chapter, same old story/No one takes the time to read” (in “Passing Lane”), the raw artistry is powerful.
The characters peopling Radiate travel with mortality on their shoulders and hope in their hearts, and Yule has the talent to strike the balance. Doubtless, this is a talent born of necessity; Yule is currently locked in a grim battle with cancer. We are fortunate, then, that he has offered us this work of grit and grace. If you listen closely, you will hear a weathered voice telling hard-earned stories, gently.