Season Changes. Ger Eaton

A new name to the blog, Ger Eaton. The Irishman shared his album Season Changes with the world in the fall of 2025. The album invokes a kind of reverence that I can only compare with an album like The Moody Blues' 'Days Of Future Passed'. For some reason not all songs are/seem extremely good, but they all impress, thus lifting the quality of the whole because of it. Ger Eaton's Season Changes has that effect on me.

Other names havecome by as comparisons. The likes of Nick Drake, Scott Walker and Jimmy Webb. Even Brian Wilson is mentioned. That are some shoes to fill. I must say that Ger Eaton comes a long way. His music has a nostalgia for the 1960s, including film scores and the score of a series like 'The Persuaders'. The arrangements of these songs all take the listener back about six decades.

At the heart of Season Changes is a singer-songwriter album. A man, his voice and an acoustic guitar or piano. From there the song is built into a totally different beast, that includes a lot of string instruments, making the album something near a barok piece. Could Johann Sebastian Bach have come up with a song like 'Heaven Knows'? My take is that if he allowed himself to think just a little outside of his box, he may well have (in German of course). Season Changes is that kind of album. Stately, dead serious and quite often very beautiful.

Photo: Oisin Queally

Despite not being a young(er) man any more, this is Ger Easton's debut solo album. Over the past twenty years he played keyboard in various bands and after a string of singles, that all passed me by, he was ready for more. That more is truly more, as this is an incredibly rich album. Eaton may have written all the songs, the stamp of the arranger Andrew Keeling can be found all over the album. The strings are played by Castle Quartet, who have a huge role. That is a starting point, as there also are recorders, flutes and horns. Listen to 'Interlude Estival Air' to hear how that plays out.

The album starts with what sounds at first like an applause starting, but changes into water lapping the shore. Other nature sounds grace the album at some points as well. All together, Season Change stands for a musical adventure. Ger Eaton has stopped at nothing it seems to make an impression on his listeners. As I already wrote, it comes close to the adventure 'Days Of Future Past' is also. With one major difference: I do not hear a 'Nights In White Satin' on Season Changes. Even if there was, the times that songs like that became hits are long gone.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght

 

You can listen to and order Season Changes here:

https://gereatondimplediscs.bandcamp.com/album/season-changes