Singer/songwriter Isaac Aragon has two pieces of good news for music listeners: First, he is releasing his new single, “Love Bless America,” on February 19 via the familiar online outlets. Second, he has recently made the decision to flip his work schedule, going from full- to part-time at his physical therapy gig (he’s got a doctorate in that discipline) and from part- to full-time in his music career. That means you’ll be seeing the Peñasco native/Los Lunas resident playing out a much more often than in the past, and you’ll be hearing a lot of new music from him this year. If the rest is anything like “Love Bless America”—oh, baby.

Isaac Aragon and The Healing
“Love Bless America” (indie)
A review
I first heard singer/songwriter Isaac Aragon and his band, The Healing, at a Summerfest event last summer and was impressed with his soulful performance and the tight, funky backing band of Burque locals. I went home with his EP, Devil’s Garden, and though I found it somewhat unpolished, I was struck by his passion and the genuine good vibe in his music. So I decided to profile him in my column in the February issue of Albuquerque The Magazine, and we met for an interview last December. We had quite a long and friendly chat about his belief that “music is medicine” on three levels—physical, emotional/spiritual, and social—and about his musical mission: “a call for commonality, a call for understanding and tolerance and justice.”

Then, he told me he had a new single that he would release early in 2019, “Love Bless America.” He said it was on a whole different level from his EP, and boy, was he ever right. Backed by Dee Brown (organ/keys), Ryan Montaño (trumpet), Jeremy Campos (guitar), Artha Meadors (bass), and Paul Palmer (percussion), Aragon has delivered a polished, powerful, and uplifting social statement. The genre is old school soul. Aragon’s resonant vocal embraces the ears and the heart, and recalls a young Marvin Gaye (one of his musical heroes, along with Bill Withers and Stevie Wonder). The groove, as smooth as silk, drops you back into the sound of ’60s Detroit, and the horns, beautifully arranged by Montaño, evoke the spiritual balm of early ’80s recordings from Van Morrison.

Aragon’s song finds commonality in the hopes of citizens at different ends of the political and cultural spectra: There’s the woman with “Two fingers to the sky/And flowers in her hair” for whom “Love is free and love is fair,” and there’s the man with “Bible held high/Stars and stripes across his chest” for whom “God is love and God is blessed.” Coming from different places, both end up at the same crossroad: “If God is love, and love is free, then why are we in misery?” Aragon answers, “If God is love/And love is free/Then it’s up to you and me/Love bless America.”

In this doctor’s hands, music is indeed medicine, and “Love Bless America” can and should be taken multiple times a day for best results. You may find yourself turning up the volume, bathing in the healing sound, and belting out the chorus along with Aragon to maximize its therapeutic effects.

© 2019 Mel Minter