By Paul T. Mueller
Caleb Caudle is a fine singer and a better-than-average songwriter, but his latest album, Carolina Ghost, doesn’t quite do justice to his gifts.
The pieces are there – tasteful guitar picking, twangy steel guitar, a solid rhythm section, some keyboards for flavor. But what it adds up to is a pleasant and not-very-challenging sound that’s reminiscent of the country pop of the Seventies.
Technically, it’s hard to fault the precise playing and the clean production by Caudle and Jon Ashley. But the album doesn’t capture the full sound and spirit Caudle and his musicians are capable of when performing live. Carolina Ghost is a good effort that would have benefited from a little more grit.