With its rich gospel flow and seriously soothing undertones, ReeToxA’s ‘Bobbie’ is a precious moment of respite that readily reintroduces calm and peace into my life in song form with carefully constructed instrumentals, timeless country timbres, and gentle melodies.
Musical brainchild of Melbourne, Australia-based musician, singer, and songwriter Jason McKee, ReeToxA is much more than a rock act, a fact that get apparent very early into McKee’s debut album Pines Salad, from which ‘Bobbie’ comes. As a collection of songs handpicked from McKee’s 3 decades of songwriting, almost each song on Pines Salad dives deeper into a particular sound, and ‘Bobbie’ takes the lion’s share of country, gospel, and choir music.
With a chord sequence taken straight from classic gospel tradition, ‘ReeToxA’ is able to spin a sound that is as familiar as it is emotionally exasperating, and with the song’s definitive wealth of comforting sounds, ‘Bobbie’ ends up being quite a soothing experience. With its medium and deliberate pacing, confident and supportive backbeat provided by Peter Marin, litany of wailing guitars from James Ryan, and grandiose pianos to support McKee’s approachable vocal delivery, we are left with a quite balanced mix of sounds that work exceedingly well together.
The slide guitar noodling and all the repetition that populate the lifetime of ‘Bobbie’ make it quite an enjoyable listen that is very easy to love. ReeToxA opens up his debut album with quite a memorable song that is bound to leave a lasting impression on the legacy McKee is about to build.