If one could chart the career of Dirk Hamilton, the ups, downs, twists and turns would resemble a rollercoaster that no MIT engineer could design, and that no daredevil would ride. The one constant has been the great music, and Hamilton’s 19th CD, Touch & Go, is filled with it. Is it his best CD? Well, when someone has 19 records spanning a career that’s getting dangerously close to 40 years, it would be hard for one disc to be the one that everybody likes best; that being said, no one who favors this one would be looked down upon. It’s that good.
And being “the best Dirk Hamilton CD” is not faint praise. His third release, 1978’s “Meet Me at the Crux,” was called “one of the essential albums of the 1970s” in a Rolling Stone article. Like the two that preceded it and the 16 that have followed, it is impossible to place all of the songs in one category. That is true again with “Touch & Go.” Ballads, blues, lamentations, driving rockers, humor and heartbreaks and a lot of stuff in between exist here; it’s hard to believe that there are only 13 songs.
If there is a flaw in “Touch & Go,” it’s the same one that exists in all of Hamilton’s releases: it’s full of songs that make you think. That’s not a bad thing; quite the opposite. But in today’s world, that’s not what most people want, and it’s more than many of them can handle. For the rest of us, this is another must-have CD from Dirk Hamilton. And if you can’t wait until the next time you see him perform to own “Touch and Go,” just go to his website and order it. And while you’re there, order all of the rest of them, too.http://www.dirkhamilton.com/05buy/buycds.htm