Beacon band releases debut album

After Justin Mayfield left a corporate gig to freelance, he experienced plenty of setbacks. But a former boss called, and all is well. Just as blues artists use real-life experiences to craft their trade and dig deep, the "rejections," as Mayfield puts it, fueled the album Real Life Story, to be released Wednesday (Aug. 27).

"I indulged myself and started speedwriting 16 or 17 songs in one pop," says Mayfield, who moved to Beacon from Brooklyn in 2015. "Then I got the band together. It was a condensed, inspired time frame."

Mayfield calls his group the Rivers Community Band, after his middle name, which is a thing in his family.

An audio engineer, he volunteers at the Fareground community kitchen. "I realized after leaving the city that at this age [37], it's harder to make connections," he says. As "old friends move off in different directions, I enjoy getting out of the house and helping others while I help myself."

The songs on the new release meander and fracture the structure of standard pop tunes. A jazzy, psychedelic Grateful Dead space jam aura underpins the approach, and the laid-back "Talk" exemplifies the twists and turns.

Despite the difficulty anticipating its direction, the tune is catchy, and an instrumental interlude leads to a laconic guitar solo by Paul Kleinschmidt, whose intertwining lines mesh with the mood.

Nothing unfolds in a hurry, including Dan McGroarty's bass. A good portion of the recording took place in drummer Joe Maltese's Beacon basement.

"I like a lot of chords and wandering melodies," says Mayfield. "We're on the fringes of sound but not extremely experimental. There are traditional song structures and harmonic conventions, but I like to twist things up a little and strive for the unusual."

Mayfield, who played plenty of jazz in college, strums a nylon-string acoustic guitar, typically associated with classical and flamenco styles, and a synthesizer, the only two instruments on the title track.

Some of the cryptic lyrics are political, as in the songs "Monocult," "Where to Go" and "When You Ask." Some tunes reflect Mayfield's worries about landing a job when he cut loose from the corporate world, like "Lonely Assignment" and "Talk": "In recent days / I've struck out with my peers / So let's talk about the ways / our plans have not been fair."

Relationships are stormy, and Mayfield laments the loss of human connection. In "Describe the Castle," he sings: "But a glance or a brief word my way / while my insides were all decaying / could hold me over for at least a day."

On the title track, Mayfield comes to terms with his existence: "You can't escape this world, but it's alright / just enjoy your own real-life story / sincerely but light."

Real Life Story is available at riverscommunityband.bandcamp.com.