Old Dusty Road – Gio
Gio’s sound has often been described as a mix of Bruce Springsteen and Milky Chance, with a vocal tone akin to George Ezra. But on his new track Old Dusty Road, those comparisons are less relevant as Gio’s sound and approach indicate that the Australian singer-songwriter has created his own niche.
With his previous releases all doing well, including Your Face, which has since been added to over 250 curated Spotify playlists and attracted over 40,000 streams and YouTube views, the young music artist looks sets to leap into the next level of his burgeoning career. Old Dusty Road is a searingly candid, moving song that’s sure to attract mainstream attention across the country. Accompanied by an enthralling video that has already amassed almost 50k YouTube views, Old Dusty Road is first and foremost an indie-rock track with elements of folk and pop.
With a wide range of dynamics that help intensify the lyric—from the opening acoustic guitar to the driving, band-led chorus—Old Dusty Road tugs at your heart while sustaining a hypnotic rhythmic foundation. Aside from his evocative voice, there’s no doubt that a large part of Gio’s appeal lies in his ability to expose dense, private emotional worlds with clarity and subtlety. As the first verse reveals: Old dusty road, take me home I’ve had too many beers, and my son is on the phone / I’ve never felt this sad in my whole life I feel my time is wasting, my mind has gone.
There is, of course, a confessional element about these lines, one that progresses into a need for redemption, as the bridge lyric shows: Love me, love me for one more day / Take me, take me oceans away / This long life all but kills with pain / And Lord knows I made too many mistakes. As Gio says about his songs: ‘I think the simpler you can make the words, the better – the less you say usually makes each word mean more. I think I say things in my music that is exactly how I’d say them in person, there is no fluff and there’s a resonance that carries to people because it’s truthful and real.’
And that continued connection between audience and artist is sure to help grow Gio’s growing fanbase.