Album Review: Fanny's Funny Boy, Karimloo, Completes His Trip Round The Compass With His 4th EP, THE ROAD TO FIND OUT WEST

Heigh Ho, dear lovely rainbow tribe, Bobby Patrick, your rainbow reviewer is back in CD-Land to offer another broken-down breakdown of a new music release. So, strap in and get ready, as Bobby goes on the record ABOUT the record.

This week's album entry in the BobbyFiles comes from FUNNY GIRL's Nicky Arnstein, Ramin Karimloo, whose six-cut EP, THE ROAD TO FIND OUT WEST, is available now on all the platforms. This Iranian-born, Canadian-raised Tony Award® nominee (for 2014's Les Misérables) is also a gifted composer and musician who adds this fourth, and presumably final, EP to his ROAD TO FIND OUT series. Logically, after releasing THE ROAD TO FIND OUT EAST, SOUTH, and NORTH editions, WEST was the only place left to go in his exploration of his self-termed musical style, BROADGRASS - a neologism (what? Bobby knows words!!) combining the conceptual make-ups of Bluegrass and Broadway. With his first track, THE ROAD TO FIND OUT/WIDE WORLD, Ramin mashed up his original song with Cat Steven's classic, as if to signal the end of the journey. We have been to the four corners and, now, the wide world is our view. Combining his bouncy number with Stevens' he completes the entire journey of his "road to find out," and, getting to the end with him, we have found that it's the journey that matters most, not the destination. It's what we have seen and experienced along the path that is of value. His usual strong vocals raised in his Broadgrass style, with a nice fiddle accompaniment, had our toes tapping in time to this tune.

In a quirky turn, RK has included two lullabies on WEST - both of them by The Sherman Brothers and both from childhood classics. Cut number two, FEED THE BIRDS, (Mary Poppin's song to the Banks children) is sung softly with a slight gravel to his voice on the verse that, then, feeds into the light mixed tenor on the chorus. The emotion of his full voice in the second chorus seems filled with tears of hope, and the final wail, as if pleading to the world... For himself? For the Children? The Birds? Who knows. Cut four - HUSHABYE MOUNTAIN from CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG sounds so lonely and mournful in its minor key with an accordion sound under a vocal that is truly lovely and haunting. While the dreamy lyrics are more "hopeful" than BIRDS, Ramin's performance makes it a little sadder, somehow. The final track, WILL THE CYCLE BE UNBROKEN, brings us back to his signature Broadgrass style with his voice, the instruments, and backup singers delivering a real "barn stomper" (as Bobby's grandpa used to say). We have no idea, though, why the tracklist uses the word CYCLE (we checked a few sources), when, in the title we all know, and the word being sung By Karimloo and Co. on this track is clearly CIRCLE. That is a mystery we shall not endeavor to solve with this writing, but if you take your CD to the stage door for Ramin to autograph... you might just ask him - and then write Bobby and clue us in.

So, my dear ones, taken all together, Ramin Karimloo's THE ROAD TO FIND OUT series yields music that uplifts, haunts, and made little Bobby sway. While EAST may not have been our entire cup of tea (Read Bobby's thoughts on that one here) WEST gave us smiles and made us touch our hearts a couple of times and, so, Bobby gives Ramin Karimloo's THE ROAD TO FIND OUT WEST a nice ...

4 Out Of 5 Rainbows

You Can Stream On Amazon: HERE

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On Your Spotifies: HERE

Keep Up With Ramin On His Webbysite: HERE

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