Dave Gleason’s Turn and Fade

Ventura may never be the next Nashville, but don’t tell that to Dave Gleason. Since bursting onto the scene, the singer has delivered soulful, intelligent California twang with a genuineness and guitar-slinging bravado that has long set him ahead of the pack. On Turn and Fade—the songwriter’s fourth recorded effort—Gleason is at his best, giving us melodic and catchy solos that never cross the line into gluttonous. On the three-minute instrumental “The San Joaquin,” Gleason delivers a rollicking and downright impressive collection of riffs that immediately call to mind the vintage West. Meanwhile, tracks like “Pale Blue” find him channeling his inner Petty with fancy fingerwork and sobering lines like, “I lost you way too many times/Now the ashes lay where the fire burned wild.” Lucky for us, Gleason’s pain is our guitar-fueled aural gain. Gleason plays Yolie’s Mex Grill (138 W. Main St., Ventura) this Friday, July 2, at 8 p.m. Visit myspace.com/davegleason for more.