On his 15 track LP named Back to My Roots, Fort Wayne native Keith Flye combines a bit of backwoods blues and soul music and winds up with an album that is cathartic, simple and personal.
Flye’s music reads like a journal or a notebook of poems with minor musical accompaniment. But like poetry, sometimes it is difficult to understand the exact meaning he intends.
At all times, however, Flye’s music is heartfelt. On the disc’s opener, “I’m Loving You,” he sings tenderly about, well, being in love. The feeling is that the relationship has gone awry, but the song’s two verses are too short to be certain.Â
“So I Gotta Start Again,” which employs some of the albums better vocals and music, sounds like it could have been penned after the aspiring musician suffered a setback that might have made him call it quits. Instead, Flye resolutely sings, “Picked my head up, you can’t get up love broke through my wall / got to stand tall, so I gotta make a way.” Flye uses his own determination to inspire others to find their callings also.
“Don’t Give Up,” an inspirational electric and bass guitar tune about persevering until attaining one’s dreams, contains some of Flye’s best writing: “I could be a fireman, I could be a mailman / but I wouldn’t be true to me,” he croons.
With more textured production and added detail in his lyrics, Flye’s sound could work well on BET J’s Soul Sessions format along with artists like Raheem DeVaughn and Maxwell.