On June 9, Alec Betterley released his new LP River Gone, a piece of ethereal and dreamy music that employs each of its instruments excellently. For the most part, the LP feels like a bedtime story, which is fitting given the opening song “Tell Me a Story.” This standard is mixed up throughout the LP, adding some extra variety.
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Based in Upstate NY, Alec Betterley is a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and music therapist who first got his start with a four track recorder all the way back in middle school. He has gone on to be a founding member of the groups My Friend Other, as well as Toys and Tiny Instruments. The LP was produced in a “30 songs in 30 days” project in May 2022.
“River Gone” was written and recorded in the very late/extremely early hours before the kids awoke. A record about parenting, anxiety, insomnia, sweet dreams, golden hour light, violence in America, longtime partnerships and all the sparkle and sorrow in between. The li’l stuff.
Alec Betterley
River Gone opens with “Tell Me a Story,” which features lyrics from Missy Lees. Her vocals, also included in “In City We Swing” and “River Gone,” help bring the LP into the ethereal, dream realm that it often finds itself in. It sets the standard for the rest of “River Gone” with its tone, and is a fitting opening given the vocalists askes for “a song of all of our days.”
Around 3:15 in “Tell Me a Story,” there is a music box-like sound that makes it feel as though the song takes place in a child’s bedroom. It is only there for a few seconds, but it is a nice detail.
The next two songs, “We’ll Never Go To Heaven” and “Anastasia” pick up the pace quite a bit from “Tell Me A Story.” While they do not fit as well as other songs in River Gone, but they are a welcome addition. “Anastasia” in particular is a personal favorite, echoing tunes somewhat similar to Elton John. After the halfway point, the electric guitar (Colin Summers) and the piano do their own version of a call and response, their notes bouncing off of each other and occasionally joining together in a dance-like fashion.
Following these, the LP returns to its dreamy theme for the most part. The next song of note is “Spectators,” which feels like a very personal song with no other part credited in the piece. Betterley’s warm vocals and the soft tunes of an acoustic guitar dominates the song, though some strings near the end begins to elevate the piece back to that ethereal realm. The guitar closes off the song alone, the very slight creaks of wood at the end adding a special charm.
“We Talk About Everything” goes back to the quick pace of “We’ll Never Go To Heaven” and “Anastasia,” but this is done in a slow increase throughout the piece. It rises from more mumbled vocals and few instruments to the upbeat and instrument-filled conclusion.
The titular song, “River Gone” starts with something no other song seems to do, a rise from the last note of the previous song, “Only Me” to the pace and the pitch of “River Gone.” Betterley and Lees perform a beautiful call and response for this song, with Lees’s chorus having nearly every word punctuated by a note from the piano. There’s a notable exception around 2:05 where most of the instruments cut suddenly, letting Lees’s vocals stand out.
The “River Gone” from Alec Betterley is available on Bandcamp and on Spotify. For more information on the artist, be sure to check out his website.
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