Will Dailey

It is cliché for a reason, life happens in mysterious ways. If not for a bout of appendicitis that left him in great debt and physically beaten and battered, Boston singer/songwriter Will Dailey might never have made the sparkling album Back Flipping Forward (which will initially be released digitally by CBS Records), a collection that demonstrates why he took home the 2006 Boston Music Award for Best Male Singer/Songwriter.

Dailey says Back Flipping Forward was definitely informed by his experiences outside of his native city as well. “There are a lot of characters in songs like ‘Hollywood Hills’ and ‘Eliza,’ talking about fleeing to Mexico, spinning the tale of something that’s definitely not the true life of a guy hanging out in Boston,” Dailey says. “That kind of national experience and the traveling, getting your hands dirty on the road, definitely seeps back into your art without even trying.”

And while there are specific characters at the heart of those songs, the themes and ideas in Dailey’s lyrics hold true regardless of where a track was written. Within such songs as “Eliza,” “Good To Me,” and “Undone,” the ideas of redemption and restlessness play out as if in an early Bruce Springsteen song. In one of the strongest lyrical passages, at the conclusion of “Rise,” Dailey sings, “When I grow up/I hope I get the hang of this/I bleed from 6 strings/I let the truth fall from my lips.”