I finally return to Ramin Karimloo’s EPs, this time with The Road to Find Out North
“Far away, long ago
Glowing dim as an ember
Things my heart used to know
Things it yearns to remember”
Even if I didn’t completely love his return to the London stage in A Face in the Crowd, it is always a thrill to see and hear Ramin Karimloo, such is the quality of his voice. Seeing him reminded me of how much I enjoyed his The Road to Find Out… EP series (East, South) and how I hadn’t actually got around to its most recent entries. First to be fired up on the old Spotify playlist was 2022’s The Road to Find Out North and it is a great reminder of how good a performer he is, even without using the booming vocal power that has made much of his reputation.
The record makes continued use of Karimloo’s patented Broadgrass style, marrying Broadway with bluegrass country, to great effect. It means that as the six-strong tracklisting pulls from a wide range of genres, a consistent musical aesthetic holds them together beautifully. There’s two trips to musical theatre – a largely restrained ‘Music of the Night’ twinkles anew and Anastasia’s ‘Once Upon a December’ shimmers, reimagined as a genuine Russian folk standard sprinkled with gorgeous harmonies.
Evergreen hymnal ‘I Vow to Thee My Country’ is just as moving rooted outside of sacred ground as it is here and it is hard not to have one’s soul lifted by the positivity of the cover of The Replacements’ proudly open ‘Androgynous’. There’s also two originals, ‘Driftwood’ penned with Hadley Fraser and ‘When Does It Go Away’, the former a toe-tapping hoedown in the making, the latter a delicately gentle mid-tempo number, both benefitting from the relaxed singing style that makes him sound like he’s having the time of his life.
