Still the Birds press – what folks are saying:

“…there’s no end to the superior songs and equally adept performances, a combined bounty that’s more than capable of taking Purpose out of the shadows and soaring like those birds he name-checks in the title.”
~ Lee Zimmerman, NoDepression

“Yes, Darryl Purpose sounds like James Taylor. And, yes, he

Still the Birds press – what folks are saying:

“…there’s no end to the superior songs and equally adept performances, a combined bounty that’s more than capable of taking Purpose out of the shadows and soaring like those birds he name-checks in the title.”
~ Lee Zimmerman, NoDepression

“Yes, Darryl Purpose sounds like James Taylor. And, yes, he has an amazing backstory…These songs are so good they eclipse all that. Purpose has a rare flair for writing memorable mellifluous melodies, and on ‘Still the Birds’ he pairs them with marvelous lyrics by Paul Zollo, who has written a rhyming dictionary and shows it by pairing ‘Halloween’ with ‘gabardine.’ Purpose’s folksy tunes enchant thanks to their surprising twists, such as the octave-and-a-half leap in the chorus of ‘When Buddha Smiled at the Elephant.’ Elsewhere he sings about gangs, devotion, Dylan Thomas, and wars today and two centuries ago. Keep this up, and someday folks will say James Taylor sounds like Darryl Purpose.”~ Steve Wine, Associated Press (read the whole review in The Washington Post, ABC News, Yahoo News, Daily Mail)

“This is absolutely superb work from one of a kind. ”
~ Jim Hynes – Elmore Magazine

“His duet with Eliza Gilkyson, ‘The Meaning of My Love,’ …shares subtle similarities with the John Prine & Iris DeMent’s duet ‘In Spite of Ourselves,’ more softly played and articulated emotionally by Darryl and Eliza…”
~ Chris Kresge

“Whoosh! It sweeps you right up. Big guy. Big heart. Big songs. Thank you Darryl Purpose and Paul Zollo for some beautiful art.”
~ Marilyn Rae Beyer – WUMB

“Fascinating, ingratiating, controversial, interesting, deep and somewhat off-center…”
~ Soundwaves

“All 11 of the songs here, written by Purpose and his partner Paul Zollo, are intriguing, the words filled with brilliant imagery while Purpose’s laid-back, warm vocal style imbues the whole album with an underlying sense of deep compassion for the human condition. Get this album and listen with care. If you like lyrics that demand attention and that will make you think, Purpose is going to make you very happy.”
~ Rhetta – Making a Scene

“Way too accomplished an album for the indie world, if this roustabout can wrangle and corral the audience this set deserves, fireworks will ensue. Well done.”
~ Midwest Record blog

"It’s been a long time since I put a new record in my CD player and
listened repeatedly for days."
~Robin Pressman, 'Our Roots Are Showing' KRCBfm

"'Next Time Around' is the gold standard of modern American folk"
~Nancy Dunham, Folking.Com

"So far, this is my favorite CD of 2012. There is no finer storyteller in acoustic
music today than

"It’s been a long time since I put a new record in my CD player and
listened repeatedly for days."
~Robin Pressman, 'Our Roots Are Showing' KRCBfm

"'Next Time Around' is the gold standard of modern American folk"
~Nancy Dunham, Folking.Com

"So far, this is my favorite CD of 2012. There is no finer storyteller in acoustic
music today than Darryl Purpose, and it's good to have him back."
~Jim Colbert, The Folk Show, WPSUfm (Dec1, 2012)

"Once in a great while an artists work shows up in my life and stands
me on my ear. Darryl’s singing and writing have unmistakably advanced
to another level." (read full blog post)
~Louise Taylor, Recording Artist

Crooked Liner Notes

Darryl Purpose has never taken the high road, and we're all the better for it. As a teenager, he carved out a distinguished and somewhat shadowed career as a professional blackjack player. In the mid-1980s, he joined a linear band of on-foot protesters called The Great Peace March, traversing the nation's service roads in a

Crooked Liner Notes

Darryl Purpose has never taken the high road, and we're all the better for it. As a teenager, he carved out a distinguished and somewhat shadowed career as a professional blackjack player. In the mid-1980s, he joined a linear band of on-foot protesters called The Great Peace March, traversing the nation's service roads in a mad effort to stop nuclear madness. But it's in the past five years, as a full-time itinerant songster, that Purpose is fully realizing his calling. Like a long musical line before him and to follow, Purpose is a dramatist for the dispossessed, a chronicler of those Americans who, by choice or by chance, live on the heart's back streets, rising through the crooked lines like leaves of grass.

Purpose calls himself a "singer-songwriter." That's a fairly new term that brings to mind luminaries (and obvious influences) such as Harry Chapin and Steve Goodman. Like these artists, Purpose tells stories to tell truths. But the school of singing-songwriting is really lodged in the roots of American folksong, in immigrant ballads sung in diverse languages by women and men in the kitchen and out behind the house. In such songs, historical memory carries through generations, with mood and feeling preserved along with names of anti-heroes like Blackjack Davey. These stories provided the seedbed for the modern singer-songwriter, and songs like "A Crooked Line," "Bryant Street" "Oughtta Be a Highway" and "California (Rutherford Hayes in the Morning)" spring fresh from this seedbed.

For writing workshops be damned, storytelling seems to mainly be something that involves a "knack." Purpose is one of the best, and he found his knack out of necessity, he says. "It emerged when I was doing a lot of live shows. I discovered that I could tell a gambling story, or a story about the Peace March, and people would react. Then, with a nudge from Robert Morgan Fisher, the stories started seeping into the songs."

"I realized I'm not going to have mosh pits," Purpose adds. "I'm not going to have people dancing wildly. So I can connect with people through the stories."

This album's opener, co-written by Paul Zollo, offers a prime example of Purpose's craft. In a masterpiece of minimalist historic fiction, Purpose sets out against a melancholy guitar backdrop just a few sparse details about President Rutherford B. Hayes: his inaugural voyage to California, his receiving of Alexander Graham Bell's new invention, his troubled position on the dawning of concurrent American frontiers. "I'm not sure it's a song about Rutherford Hayes," Purpose says. "It's about history and how history is not what happens, but what's remembered."

Perhaps. After all, how else could Purpose make us care so much about a president who was not too well liked even during his reign? (One wonders if Purpose might next take on the legacy of Millard Fillmore.) But the song also resonates because it evokes the sadness that occasions the birth of any new epoch. It speaks to the 21st century by reawakening the 19th.

The cast of largely nameless wanderers and fate-tempters introduced in Purpose's previous albums now expands in A Crooked Line. Added to "Mr. Schwinn" and the sojourner of "You Must Go Home for Christmas" (from Same River Twice) are the narrators of "Late For Dinner" and "Crooked Line," people captured by Purpose as they are still en route to making their peace.

Other times, Purpose sheds the journeyman's cloak altogether and offers what amounts to hobo's lullabies, songs about the sheer joy of making music and rhymes. The playful "I Lost a Day to the Rain," is one of these. In it, Purpose recounts the only three characters of Western civilization who can be immediately associated with rainfall: Noah, Ben Franklin and Gene Kelly. There's not a fourth. At least, Purpose reports, no audience member on a long string of concerts has been able to come up with one.

One more song bears mention here. "Bryant Street" is among the bravest and most starkly autobiographical of Purpose's songs. It tells of the result of another wandering, this one a modern trip through genealogical tables and Internet search engines. At the end of the voyage was the discovery of a half-sister Purpose never met. I won't say more here; this story is best heard just as Purpose sings it.

In a recent profile in Dirty Linen magazine, Purpose explains his compositional talents: "I write a great half a song." Here, his partnerships with Fisher, Zollo, and Ellis Paul result in another collection of tunes that will stick around for a long while. Musical compatriots include long-time accompanist Daryl S, and the esteemed Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer, stylers of "postmodern mythic American music" whose own musical paths have often intersected with Purpose's.

And so a crooked line is blazed. The sources of this album's title are many: it's a physical description of the border between California and Nevada (and the rest of the country). It's the path of constant touring upon which Purpose the musician has staked his claim. And it's the sideways directions that songs like "California (Rutherford Hayes in the Morning)" find their way to their target, by appearing as one form and then revealing ten more. You have to be careful who you meet on the low roads: there's magic out there.

- Michael Tisserand

Michael Tisserand is the editor of Gambit Weekly in New Orleans. His book The Kingdom of Zydeco received the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for music writing in 1999.

Darryl Purpose was a late arrival to the folk explosion of the 1990s. By the time he became a full-time folk singer in 1996, the competition among acoustic troubadours scrambling to find a place in the wake left by monster success stories like Tracy Chapman, Shawn Colvin, and the Indigo Girls was intense and daunting. But folk music is, after all,

Darryl Purpose was a late arrival to the folk explosion of the 1990s. By the time he became a full-time folk singer in 1996, the competition among acoustic troubadours scrambling to find a place in the wake left by monster success stories like Tracy Chapman, Shawn Colvin, and the Indigo Girls was intense and daunting. But folk music is, after all, a storytelling genre. And when Purpose did finally hit the folk scene, he came with an unusually eclectic resume that provided him with a wealth of compelling stories to tell. His songs, which have drawn liberally from his experiences as a highly regarded professional blackjack player and a well-traveled peace activist, garnered considerable attention from the outset of his career. After the 1996 release of his debut album, Right Side of Zero, Purpose began an impressive prize-inning run in songwriting contests around the country. His sophomore effort, a one-take acoustic recording with violinist Daryl S., was released in December of 1997 with the title darryl PURPOSE; it was later reissued as Same River Twice. By the time he recorded his third album, Traveler's Code in 1999, Purpose had made enough of an impact in American folk circles to score guest appearances from well-established artists like Ellis Paul, David Miner, and Lucy Kaplansky. The confident, rich Crooked Line appeared in summer 2001, followed by the Christmas release Gift of the Magi in 2002. ~ Evan Cater

Travelers' Code is as colourful as the man himself. Darryl was once recognized as one of the world's best blackjack players and is an avid peace activist. Darryl's peace march took him across the U.S. in 9 months and on to Russia for a historic walk across the Russian heartland which culminated in the first-ever, outdoor stadium rock concert in the former Soviet Union which featured Bonnie Raitt, Santana, James Taylor and Darryl's band, Collective Vision.

Travelers' Code becomes part of you, the baritone voice and smoothly proficient finger-style guitar gently shines through on every track.

Mr Schwinn is a perfect example of this, simply crafted with the sadness of an unfulfilled love.

Child of Hearts is a traveling song, which packs a heavy emotional punch. " The past came knocking at my door - with the winnings of a card game long ago - there gift wrapped in pink dress and bow - stood the four-year-old child I thought I'd never know "

CHORUS she said " you're not the papa of my prayers - you're not the king of hearts across the sea - you are big and scary and almost never home - you're just not the father I thought you would be "

Lucy Kaplansky joins Darryl for Ring on My Hand, a vocal marriage with a really nice waltz feel. Will it last? Statistically no, but musically the dance is eternal.

The Last Great Kiss of the 20th Century. A great idea for a song with an ending that will restore your faith in humanity.

True As The River will cleanse your spirit and Annieland will rock you.

Smoke & Mirrors is an inspired instrumental, well constructed where guitar and violin play off each other beautifully.

For The Story " I live my whole life for the Story - did it all for a song - took my chances, didn't worry - about eventual outcomes - and I let some people down along the way - like a dreamer sometimes does "

The Stars All Live at Sunny's House and The Circle shine with the ancient art of story telling and Travelers' Code is the light at the end of the tunnel.

What makes this album so special is the fusion between songwriter/ storyteller and finger guitar style. It is one of the strongest albums I've heard for a long time.

Travelers' Code is Darryl's third CD.

Darryl Purpose demonstrated brilliantly his ability to survive solo acoustic recording with his one-take gem Same River Twice. His 1999 follow up takes up the challenge of denser production with mixed results. Of course, much of the burden in such an approach rests with the artist's collaborators.Purpose is fortunate in this regard; he has obviously made some valuable friends in his first few years as a folk performer. Traveler's Code is produced by David Miner, a folk-rock veteran who has worked with artists like Leo Kottke, Elvis Costello and Pierce Pettis. The album also features guest performances by high profile vocalists Lucy Kaplansky, who makes a beautifully tender duet of "Ring On My Hand," and Ellis Paul, who lends his powerful tenor to the catchy "Child of Hearts." Those songs, as well as a sensitively reworked full band treatment of the excellent "Mr. Schwinn," get the album off to a crackling start in its opening tracks. And the record ends on a strong note with the lovely title track. But much of the material in between goes too far in a folk-pop direction that fails to utilize Purpose's greatest strengths. His remarkably detailed fingerstyle guitar work is often either buried or replaced with less challenging strumming patterns. (The intricate instrumental "Smoke and Mirrors" is a laudable exception.) And his vocals, so masterful and multifaceted on Same River Twice, seem overly thin and nasal in some of the faster songs. But even without the consistency of its remarkable predecessor, Traveler's Code has more than enough bright moments to maintain Purpose's place as one of the most promising new artists in American folk.

A former professional blackjack player, Darryl Purpose is also a skilled finger-style guitarist and lyrical songwriter. He shares a bit of Ellis Paul's naive charm and sensitivity.. He has written at least one exceptional song, "The Right Side of Zero," Purpose's strongest work injects a gambler's risk-taking urge into themes of love, desire, and travel. The musical foundations lie in his dreamy, intricate acoustic guitar playing, with some unobtrusive violin and bass. Purpose finds his element when his imagination and melodies speak for themselves, as on the benedictory title track and the searing and spare "True as the River."

Based on liner notes hinting at his blackjack career, activism in the peace movement and a weekend in jail, Darryl Purpose's life has dealt him a myriad of potential songwriting experiences. Showing the storytelling influence of Harry Chapin with a bit of Bob Dylan thrown in, Purpose's third CD, Traveler's Code, revels in emotional nakedness, smoothly weaving images of love, fear, loneliness and regrets through its 11 tracks.

The album opens with "Mr. Schwinn," a song which initially elicits cringes at forced rhymes like "Mr. Schwinn was as thin as a pelican's grin," but as the story progresses telling of the Schwinn's enduring hope for love and his influence on those around him, the rhyming complements the message. Purpose won the National Songwriting Competition in January 1998 with this ballad.

The poignant "Child of Hearts" also combines pain and hope revealing the honesty of a 4-year old in meeting her father, "You're not the papa of my prayers, you're not the king of hearts across the sea, you're big and scary and almost never home...." Ellis Paul contributes harmony to Purpose's hard-edged vocals.

"Ring on My Hand," a countrified duet with Lucy Kaplansky, celebrates a couple's realization of commitment, with "Look there's a ring on my hand." While, the gravelly baritone of Purpose and sweet clear soprano of Kaplansky combine beautifully, the lyrics don't evoke the raw emotional power of most of the other tracks on this album. This song feels like Purpose and co-writer Robert Morgan Fisher (who also shared credits on "Mr. Schwinn" and "Travelers' Code") set out to write a wedding song.

"The Last Great Kiss of the 20th Century" is an intelligent romp. In this ballad, a single guy takes a chance, seeking out an acquaintance on December 31, 1999. The two take a walk on the Santa Monica pier and at the last moment of the year, culminate their affections in the "last great kiss of the 20th Century, no time to think about the millions before." She's impressed but points out that the century doesn't really end for another full year. The spoken ending to the story is a little corny, but fun.

The remaining songs continue the themes with powerfully sung lyrics. The solo acoustic guitar behind "True as the River" enhances its simple message of looking beneath the surface. "Annieland" exposes a yearning to stop running away from love coupled with a sweet melody.

The only instrumental cut, "Smoke and Mirrors," showcases Purpose's proficiency on guitar, complimented beautifully by Daryl S. on the violin. The combination is mesmerizing and all too brief. "For the Story" returns Purpose to the folk vocals he does so well, this time sliding into melancholy, leaving loves for a life constantly searching for stories and songs.

"The Stars All Live at Sunny's House," boasting a most humable melody, shows a woman living in isolation in this prayerful ballad that that pulls in elements of folklore spirituality and Catholicism. In contrast, "The Circle" creates vivid images of fire and smoking and dancing as initiates are welcomed to a pagan ceremony.

With "Travelers' Code (Follow the Light)," Purpose returns to the combined hope and yearning for love that began the journey of this album. Kate Miner, Hannah Dwinell and Olivia Miner contribute beautiful harmonies to this slow, spiritual farewell.

Travelers' Code is a diverse and emotionally charged effort from a fine songwriter and musician. by Julie Bowerman Rambles.net


You meet the most interesting people on a Darryl Purpose CD. Traveler's Code is his "produced" follow-up to his "one take," live-in-the-studio CD from 1997, Darryl Purpose. In fact a couple of the songs from DP show up in a slightly reworked fashion on Traveler's Code. Produced by David Minor, Traveler's Code introduces us to a variety of characters, all of whom we have no trouble believing are people that have drifted in and out of Purpose's life over the years. In the opening song, Mr. Schwinn, we meet An old man who fixes bicycles for the local children and builds his "perfectly-matched" his and her bikes that he is saving for his own "Mrs. Schwinn," whenever he may find her. Of course, he never does meet Mrs. Schwinn, and therein lies the story.

Another memorable character that Purpose introduces us to is the little red-haired four-year-old child that "I thought I'd never know." She has a gambler father who is never home, and both father and daughter are somewhat disappointed with their lot in life. The daughter would prefer a father who is home, and the father would prefer to not hear about what a lousy father he knows he is. On this song, Child of Hearts, we are brought into their world. As adults and parents, we sometimes need to be reminded that we're responsible for these little people who look up to us. They inconvenience us sometimes, and we certainly disappoint them, but it all comes down to needing each other and doing the best we can. No excuses. Ellis Paul does a fine job with backup harmonies on this one, and helps to make it one of the most moving songs on the CD. Harry Chapin would be proud.

On The Last Great Kiss of the 20th Century, Purpose reworks a song that he recorded on his Darryl Purpose CD from a couple of years ago. This song introduces us to two people who are going to ring the century out in style with the "last great kiss of the 20th century." Of course, all educated people know that the century doesn't really end until 2001, and this is the basis for his reworking the ending to this song. It's clever, witty, touching, and will leave you smiling.

There are many other great characters on this CD: Sunny, Annie, Mary, and Barbara, to name a few, but the most enduring character is Purpose himself. He has done a wonderful job creating the persona of a traveling man who is looking for something; his next card game, his next song, or his next love. In the song For The Story he sings:
I've lived my whole life for the story
Did it all for a song.
Took my chances, didn't worry
About eventual outcomes.
And I let some people down along the way,
Like a dreamer sometimes does.
But you know that I tried to do the right thing,
Near as I could tell what that was.
Traveler's Code will speak to all those that are looking for something. His stories are little romantic novels set to music, with an undercurrent of melancholy. They will linger with you long after the music ends.

In addition to Ellis Paul helping out on vocals, there is also Lucy Kaplansky, who once again shows that she is one of the most talented singers out there today. Other musicians who help out include: Darryl S., Bob Malone, David Minor, Walter Rodriguez, Ron Aniello, Kate Minor, Hannah Dwinell, and Olivia Minor. ~Rick Russell acoustic music.com





This review is written by Kevin McCarthy, 12/99
"Kevin and Maxine’s Celtic & Folk Music CD Reviews"
https://www.kevindmccarthy.com/music/index.html
send me an email message

Darryl Purpose, aka Sentimental Traveler, is back with a new release reprising a couple of his best songs, "Mr. Schwinn" and "The Last Great Kiss of the 20th Century," and presenting a new set of compositions. Why the nickname you ask? Because the nomadic Purpose is at his best when presenting heartfelt tales and spinning traveling tunes--sometimes separately, sometimes together, in one song.

Early on, Purpose works the more sentimental side as in the aforementioned "Mr. Schwinn" and "The Last Great Kiss of the 20th Century." Plus "Child of Hearts" and "Ring On My Hand" will also have you scurrying for tissue.

"Mr. Schwinn" is about a bachelor bicycle repairer who keeps a special set of his-and-her "honeymoon" bicycles around the back of his shop. Alas, he passes away, having never married, thus unfortunately never realizing the opportunity to use the special pair of bicycles.

Certainly fitting for the coming of a new millennium, "The Last Great Kiss of the 20th Century," has been re-fitted with a new ending. The narrator closes out the year 2000 in the same manner as 1999, but with an added delightful and surprising twist.

Building the tempo of its verses into a rocking chorus, "Child of Hearts" begins with a four-year-old daughter showing up unannounced on her father's doorstep. The daughter speaks the chorus:

"...she said, you're not the papa of my prayers
you're not the king of hearts across the sea
you are big and scary and almost never home
you're just not the father I thought you would be..."
The narrator, amidst the awkwardness, finally says in reconciliation:
"is life what happens in between
all these things we plan so carefully
now a child of hearts is in front of me
so please, little girl, don't give up on me..."
The little girl repeats the chorus but replaces the last line with "but please mr. stranger give up on me."
Purpose trades solos and duets with Lucy Kaplansky on "Ring On My Hand," a tune many couples may soon be incorporating as part of their marriage ceremonies. It goes:

"I awoke from my sleep
twas the first day of living
and a fresh dew lay light o'er the land
I put on my shirt
pulled up my sleeve
and look...there's a ring...on my hand
where before both my arms had been wildly flailing
for the want of a worthy command
they now hung by my side
both steady and sure
can't you see...there's a ring...on my hand

so I walked to the table
and I took my seat
for it seemed that the feast was prepared
and the loveliest person
that I've ever known
sat in the opposite chair

I've lived alone and the silence was deafening
out of ear of the ancients' bold plan
now I hear my heart beat
in the breast of another
and look...there's a ring...on her hand

this ring surrounds our doubt
breaks it down, kicks it out
leaving words spoke in this circle unbroken
imagine all that we can do with someone to
keep you and love you forever
now I hear my heart beat
in the breast of another

and look...there's a ring...on my hand"

"For The Story" is a quintessential Darryl Purpose traveling tune. Unable to settle down and stay attached to someone but unsure of what he is looking for, he sings:
"...I've lived my whole life for the story
did it all for a song
took my chances, didn't worry
about eventual outcomes
and I let some people down along the way
like a dreamer sometimes does
but you know that I tried to do the right thing
near as I could tell what that was..."
He closes out the song with:
..."you may find me traveling through your hometown
or playing my song on your radio
there between the lines
another chapter is unfolding
my heart is an open book and music my way home..."
The tender and sweet "Travelers' Code (Follow The Light)" closes out the release. Appropriate as a homily for funeral or remembrance ceremonies, or just in speaking one's creed, it goes:
"As you leave this place
you may feel afraid
and the dreams you offer this weary world may fall by the road
who knows where we'll be in a week or three?
so I'll hoist my heart and I'll give myself to this travelers code
follow the light
when the woods become thick
follow the light
when your eyes show you tricks
follow the light
when the waters are rough
follow the light
follow the light
cause that light is love

comes the hour to go
our heads may hang low
but you and I forever will know that we're part of this tribe
I will own my pain, you will do the same
and in the end we're beholden to this law to which we ascribe

follow the light
when the woods become thick
follow the light
when your eyes show you tricks
follow the light
when the waters are rough
follow the light
follow the light
cause that light is love..."

This former (present?) professional gambler has made an impressive foray into the singer-songwriter world in a very short period of time. His musical performances, whether subtle or forceful, command attention. Give him yours.
Purpose, on acoustic guitar and vocals, is backed by Daryl S. on violin and viola; Bob Malone on hammond organ, David Miner on bass, harmonium, glockenspeil, harpsichord, accordion, mandolin, piano and harmony vocals; Walter Rodriguez on drums and percussion; Ron Aniello on electric guitar, acoustic guitar and 8-string ukulele; Kate Miner on harmony vocals; Hannah Miner on harmony vocals; Olivia Miner on harmony vocals; Ellis Paul on harmony vocals; and Lucy Kaplansky on vocals.

Track List:

Mr. Schwinn (4:40) Darryl Purpose and Robert Morgan Fisher
Child of Hearts (3:40) Darryl Purpose and Elizabeth Fairchild
Ring On My Hand (3:08) Darryl Purpose and Robert Morgan Fisher
Last Great Kiss of the 20th Century (5:17) Darryl Purpose
True As The River (1:54) Darryl Purpose
Annieland (3:08) Darryl Purpose
Smoke and Mirrors (3:18) Darryl Purpose
For the Story (4:35) Darryl Purpose, Ed Berghoff and Kilty Reeves
The Stars All Live at Sunny's House (4:48) Darryl Purpose and Paul Zollo
The Circle (4:44) Darryl Purpose, Lisa Aschman and Elizabeth Fairchild
Traveler's Code (4:40) Darryl Purpose and Robert Morgan Fisher

Copyright © 1998-2015 Kevin & Maxine’s Celtic & Folk Music CD Reviews. All rights reserved.