Artist: Robert Daniel Irwin
Album: Nature vs. Nurture
Genre: Country, Acoustic
Released: 2020
Quality: FLAC (tracks)
Tracklist:
- Sunday Morning
- That's the Way It Was
- When She Rains
- Chicken Farmer Blues
- A Tired Lullaby
- Get Up
- Honeysuckle Rose
- Horses in the Yard
- Traveling Through
- Gravestone
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“Nature vs. Nurture” is an acoustic blend of vocals, guitars, violin, and piano, with rock, folk, country, and blues influences. The record features 10 original songs, including “Sunday Morning,” “When She Rains,” and “Chicken Farmer Blues,” with lyrics that explore the complexities of childhood, growing up, and growing older - set against a backdrop of nature imagery.
Rob sings and plays all guitars on the album: a Martin D-1 and Gibson Hummingbird Pro, as well as a Martin twelve-string (especially notable on the track “That’s the Way It Was”).
Rob’s daughter Indigo Irwin provided backing vocals on multiple tracks, and a variety of friends sat in for sessions, including Charlie Mansour (piano on “When She Rains” and “Traveling Through”; harmonica on “Chicken Farmer Blues”), Jim Sirch (Irish whistle and bodhran on “Honeysuckle Rose”), Willow Sirch (violin on “Sunday Morning” and “Get Up”), and Matt Terribile (backing vocals and percussion on several tracks).
With songs ranging from soaring ballad (“Get Up”), to country blues (“Chicken Farmer Blues”), to crooked love song (“Sunday Morning”, “When She Rains”), and even lullaby (“A Tired Lullaby”), Rob displays a songwriting and musical style sometimes reminiscent of John Prine and other times of John Mellencamp. Harmonizing and vocal layering on tracks such as “Gravestone”, “That’s the Way It Was”, and “Traveling Through” provide not only musical complexity but also depth to the stories Rob tells. His lyrics often explore the contradictions and dualities of life, sometimes nostalgically: “Your pocketwatch tells the time. / And my birth year on a dime / Reminds me even children have a past.”, or defiantly: “I never did take folks’ advice, so I’m living someone else’s life. / Raising kids, instead of raising glasses and hell.”
Many of Rob’s songs tell stories that include childhood memories and explore the complexities of relationships as we get older. In the track “Gravestone”, for example, Rob weaves personal recollections of the people he has lost with the universal desire to understand and reconnect with our past; in “Horses in the Yard” he playfully expresses the need to slow down and embrace our imperfect lives.