Album Review: Pharis & Jason Romero, ‘These Are the Days That Turn Into Years”

In the hurried pace of life, days often rush past us in a blur as we move among the many busy and little things in our world. Before we know it years have passed, and we’ve settled into familiar patterns, friendships have ended, and we have lost loved ones. On their warmly intimate seventh studio album These Are the Days That Turn in to Years, Pharis & Jason Romero reflect on what happens when we slow down and embrace the daily moments in our lives that might otherwise fly by us.

The swaying rhythms of “Big Time World,” with undulating fiddling weaving under and around jaunty banjo rolls, resemble a walk down a country road, even as the song reveals that no matter how much you prepare to live in the “big time world,” it’s seldom enough, for that world has “its own set of rules.” “Last Call” opens slowly but picks up tempo, propelled by Trent Freeman’s spiraling fiddling, into a joyous barn dance rhythm; although it’s a meditation on the last call with a loved one, the song’s lyrics joyously embrace the memories of a life well lived. Pharis’ crystalline vocals elevate the spaciously unfolding love song “Hey Babe,” while ragtime piano rolls play call and response with aching fiddles on the carnivalesque rambler “Always Losing Track.” A slow blend of blues and old time provide the foundation for ethereal harmonies on “Cannonball,” a meditation on the aches and joys of a mother-daughter relationship. The album closes with the poignant and celebratory title track, a gospel-inflected number that features rolling piano and Pharis’ soaring vocals.

On These Are the Days That Turn Into Years, Pharis & Jason Romero deliver yet another memorable album filled with their transportive melodies, spacious harmonies, and instrumental ingenuity.

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These Are the Days That Turn Into Years is available HERE.