Skyway Man 
No stranger to the concept album, James Wallace returns this year with another winding journey, complete with UFOlogy, cosmic healing practices, and a psychic connection with a mythical doctor who helped inspire the very core of the Skyway Man persona. Wallace drapes his dreamscapes, myths, and metaphysics in a sound that draws from the soul-blistered songwriter school — touches of Leon Russell, Dr. John, and Doug Sahm, but softened and soothed. If any of the three might have had a run-in and ramble with Van Dyke Parks, this is the sound that might have materialized. The songs on Flight of the Long Distance Healer vamp and preen, but new to his canon, they also gaze inward, shining the cosmic light on his own humanity, his hopes, and the philosophy that ties together the world of the Skyway Man.
Along for the ride are a host of friends and familiars with names that ring a few bells around here. Erin Rae, Vetiver’s Andy Cabic, Spencer Cullum, and Kelly McFarling all pop up among the songs on Long Distance Healer, rounding out Wallace’s compositions and adding touches of softness and soul. The record leans into its dream-like subject matter, turning hallucinatory imagery into resplendent odes to transcendence, higher intelligence, extra-terrestrial life, and our own deep longing. The pianos pound on “Long Distance Healing,” the voices swell in chorus, and that energy emanating from the cover begins to feel like its hardly even hyperbole. This is Wallace’s most complete vision under the banner of Skyway, and a journey that captivates the listener to the last note.
Support the artist. Buy it HERE.