Sarah Morris - Hearts in Need of Repair (2017)

OFFICIAL: www.sarahmorrismusic.com

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Written by Mike Yoder, posted by blog admin

Blues, country, folk and hard rock unite into a cohesive whole on Sarah Morris’ latest recording, Hearts in Need of Repair.  Maintaining full momentum on the heels of her prior full-length albums 2012’ Lonely or Free and 2015’s Ordinary Things, Morris’ newest platter expands on the musical ideas, dazzling instrumentation, heartfelt vocals and baroque lyrical inflections tenfold. 

Starting off with a bang, the title track places full emphasis on Morris’ powerful set of pipes and dynamic vocal range.  Stream of conscious verses go into a full bodied chorus where melody is held high above all things.  Multipart acoustic guitar licks, fluid jabs of bass and gentle drumming give off an ebb n’ flow that enraptures the senses and hooks your mind in for the long haul.  The lively “Good at Goodbye” is a bouncy number overflowing with faster-paced acoustic guitar twang given a call to arms by the snappy, brush-played snare drum work.  Bass lines come at you full force and Sarah’s vocals showcase a tough drive which adds danger to the awesome melodicism.  “Cheap Perfume” switches things up musically yet again and takes the peppy country of “Good at Goodbye” and stitches some harder, slower blues swerves into the sonic fabric.  This opening trio of tunes sets the tone for the album to come and things only get better with each passing track. 

“Helium” is straight acoustic folk and is reminiscent of a more elegant take on the Guthrie approach to the genre.  The album’s lead single “Falling Over” has a little more dirt under its nails and bewitches the eardrums with electric guitar swipes, bayou-bred guitar licks borrowed from Ry Cooder’s playback, tribal drumming and a super sultry lead vocal.  It’s a gripping piece with a snaking American Gothic musical backdrop emerging from a dank, bluesy swamp south of the Mason Dixon Line.  Perfectly following it up is the electrified rock, blues and Nashville tinge of “Course Correction’s” achingly harrowing vocals and Morris’ bands white knuckle instrumental twists driving the ball hard over the fences.  The pop-kissed folk of “Empty Seat” might just be the record’s sugar sweetest, most uplifting numbers thanks to multi-tracked acoustics and Morris’ instantly memorable vocal melody. 

The fuzzy, semi-distorted heavy riffs and greasy acoustic blues groove of “Shelter or the Storm” is a gutsy, stormy cut that locks onto a grueling rhythms and incendiary vocals.  While the songwriting always teeters between divine melodies and heavier tropes, this track is probably the most direct in terms of the group’s musical divisions fully uniting.  “Nothing Compares” jettisons the gravelly attack for soft, soulful country folk that’s nearly entirely acoustic aside from sparse electric notations.  “On a Stone” inserts some classical string arrangements and some male/female vocal harmonies into the guitar-centered acoustic beauty.  Curtain calling track “Confetti” is an epic piece that drops in a touch of piano, cabaret pop and other disparate influences onto the head-swimming country folk majesty. 

Hearts in Need of Repair eclipses Sarah Morris’ two prior excellent outings by upping the musical ante in nearly every way.  Top off the dynamic musicianship and Morris’ wonderful vocals is a production job that highlights each song’s many strengths (Morris and the band earned a co-production credit alongside their usual producer Eric Blomquist).  For an old school musical atmosphere without being kitschy retro, it doesn’t get much better than Hearts in Need of Repair.    

J.Briozo - Deep in the Waves (2017)

OFFICIAL: http://www.jbriozo.com/

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/jbriozo/

Written by Raymond Burris, posted by blog admin

It’s impossible to pin down J. Briozo on his first full-length solo album, Deep in the Waves.  The visionary singer/songwriter responsible for this recording is Jeff Crandall; lead vocalist and lyricist for the Minneapolis-bred, off-the-wall roots rockers Swallows.  Jeff’s work in that band has been lauded with critical and listeners’ acclaim alike, and as the band prepared to record their new album (In the Shadow of the Seven Stars) Crandall found a set of his own songs forming in his mind.  The result is 12 dangerously unique, oblique earworms that evade genre trappings and show completely no concern for style, labels or anything else that’s the basis for a lot of modern music. 

Kick-off track “Blind” is a theatrical piece rich with moody musical drama.  Jeff’s vocals glide melodically over clouds of reverb-drenched, meditative guitar loops while a laidback percussive pulse, a deep bass presence and brooding keyboards shade in the foreground and background.  It’s an interesting way to start the album and is somewhat the result of combining Portishead’s psychedelic trance with blues, pop, chamber music and post-rock ambience.  Quite frankly it’s a boundless sound that gives tradition the cold shoulder.  The song’s most immediate counterpart (the title track) summons a similar vibe but swaps the majority of the keyboard components for acoustic strum and string quartet symphonies (cello, viola, etc. are the lead elements).  “Beautiful Mess” dials down some of the experimentalism for a hugely memorable, pop-leaned chorus with beautiful, serene vocal melodies from Crandall and folky acoustic strum giving way to fuzzy electric guitars, driving drum clatter and several sea changes in mood. 

Acting as a sign of things to come the electric riffage and explosive leads of “Beautiful Mess” dives headlong into the fervent blues-rock attack presented by “Spinning Out;” a cut that features an eclectic mesh of acoustic tranquility and scorched Earth, hard rock boogie that never lets up for a second of its playtime.  Stunning vocal harmonies, a pulsating bottom-end grind and organ flourishes cultivate a keeper of a track that just happens to possess the album’s most memorably intoxicating chorus.  It’s practically the polar opposite of “Rain Song,” an aural arena where Crandall’s voice quivers with a low-key, husky blues as strings and acoustic guitar ebb and flow in streams of understated melody.  This is one of the softest, most delicate jams amongst the 12 and as such ends up a surprise highlight. 

Elsewhere, “The Big Parade” implants a full horn section into a hammering, hard-rock swinger that’s exploding with acoustic/electric charm, “Catatonia” and “Las Cruces” place folky acoustics at the forefront while leaving room for atmospheric blues-chord bends and strings to hypnotize the mind, the quartet of songs beginning with “Las Cruces” and ending with “Santa Cruz” cross-pollinate heavily orchestrated chamber music with pop/folk/blues embellishments, leaving closer “Sun Sun True” to blend guitar rock pyrotechnics into ultra-catchy, three and four part vocal harmonies that sound like they were piped in directly from the 70s (almost like a mixture of ingredients from The Byrds meets The Outlaws). 

Deep in the Waves is a staggering achievement with daring songwriting, top-notch performances and an attentive ear put towards the production and mixing.  There’s really nothing out there that it’s directly comparable to which is a difficult feat to muster in 2017.  If the idea of the best elements of the 60s, 70s and 90s all rolled into one is your idea of a good time, then you’re going to have a field day with Deep in the Waves.

Sarah Donner - Black Hole Heart (2016)

OFFICIAL: https://www.sarahdonner.com
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MUSIC VIDEO: (PHOENIX)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j13Jwyb-AnA

Written by Frank McClure, posted by blog admin

One of the most beautiful aspects of Sarah Donner’s album Black Hole Heart is how fresh these familiar acoustic soundscapes sound in her hands. Donner has an unique talent for making the textures and tones of traditional folk music come alive with an almost pop-song like energy and has a penchant for structuring her folk-influenced tunes in a manner that mimics the orchestrations common in pop songs. It makes many of the tracks on Black Hole Heart stand out in a crowded musical style where it’s often a struggle to tell the difference between various musicians. Donner also possesses a set of pipes that rate among the most expressive instruments either on the indie or mainstream scene today – she comes off, truly, as a singer capable of handling any material. She wisely writes songs, however, that play to her strengths and the dozen songs on Black Hole Heart are fully realized musical pieces with considerable melodic and vocal strengths.   

The best possible opening for the album is “Phoenix” and Donner, thankfully, concurs. The melodicism of the vocal and arrangement alike have a gentle, but lively, glitter that work perfectly together and Donner gives one of her best singing performances while still lacking some of the overt vocal pyrotechnics we hear on later tracks. Piano and acoustic guitar work extremely well together on the superbly constructed “Black Hole Heart” and the personal nature of the lyric nevertheless touches on emotions we can all relate to and wisely avoids too many specific details that might isolate it from our experience. The folk song influences running through “Tamsen Donner 1847” somewhat obscure the five star writing job that forms the heart of the song. Donner’s done a great job conjuring the atmosphere of a doomed voyage in her lyrics and the crystalline musical backing is quite appropriate for the work. The rustic, bluegrass tinged qualities of “Athena” means the song is essentially cut from the same cloth as the aforementioned “Tamsen Donner 1847”, but the jaunty air of the musical arrangement couldn’t contrast any sharper with the earlier song’s mood.

Mike Batchlor’s organ work and fine trumpet playing from Phillip Fillion distinguish “The Flood” musically from the surrounding songs. Donner’s vocal excellence is just as impactful with the added instrumentation and she clearly draws a certain degree of inspiration from the near-shuffle guitar and unusual instrumentation. Some humor creeps in near the end of “The Longest Road”, but this is otherwise another affecting, personally-slanted tune that Donner gives a zesty, impassioned reading of. “Sinking Ship” is reminiscent of the earlier “Tamsen Donner 1847” in a few ways, but it’s most notable another character driven piece where Donner embodies the voice for a narrator on the cusp of losing their life. Despite the weighty scenario, the music maintains a tasteful air rife with haunting atmospherics. Black Hole Heart solidifies Donner’s standing as one of the best singer/songwriters working on the indie scene today.

Gregg Stewart - Twenty Sixteen (2017)

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Written by Frank McClure, posted by blog admin

The passion Gregg Stewart brings to his second solo release, a fourteen song album of cover tracks entitled Twenty Sixteen, doesn’t differ at all from the fire lighting up his own compositions. The title alludes to the overarching theme behind this collection – Stewart selects his tracks from artists and songwriters who died during 2016 and will undoubtedly please many of their admirers thanks to his often outside the box picks. Stewart doesn’t attempt to ape the sonics heard in any of the originals and, instead, recasts everything with a minimalist, often acoustic slant that can embody great delicacy and surprising power, sometimes within the same song. His voice proves more than adequate for tackling the wide variety of moods spanning the fourteen song running order. While there is some merit to saying fourteen songs is exhaustive and the album runs too long, there’s no question that it remains consistent throughout and there’s not a single reinterpretation listeners can consider a total miss.

“You Spin Me Round” might seem an improbable candidate for a song Stewart might cover, but he dispenses with the electronic driven musical theatrics of the original, along with Pete Burns’ hypnotic drone on the chorus, and instead serves up something more understated and sultry. He’s much more in his own customary territory adapting the traditionally minded, albeit gussied up for its era, songwriting for singer and former Wham! Member George Michael’s “A Different Corner”. It is closer to straight ahead singer/songwriter material in Stewart’s hand and has a bright lilt from the acoustic guitars that pairs up nicely with the piano. Stewart’s singing is especially relaxed, with a loose kind of Caribbean confidence emanating from his voice that’s quite different from what we hear in the opener. His voice shows us another face with the cover of Prince’s “Raspberry Beret” and the same acoustic style template defining the earlier songs remains in effect here with Stewart ‘s arrangement of the song retaining its all important melodic hook while stripping everything else to the barest of essentials. It still retains its pop appeal, though, that still comes through. He takes on another seemingly unlikely cover with a take on Maurice White’s “Sing a Song”, but Stewart sounds remarkably at ease with the Earth, Wind, and Fire legend’s soul and R&B laced songwriting. There’s no question that Stewart brings considerable chops to everything he touches, but they are never showy and this song is no exception.

“One More Love Song”, written by Leon Russell, does capture the Americana rock vibe of The Band that Gregg Stewart describes himself aiming for in the notes for this song and it thankfully never comes at risk of obvious imitation. One of the odder but ultimately more successful choices for this collection is a song associated with actor Gene Wilder from his role in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, “Pure Imagination”, that Stewart carries off without a hint of irony or comedic intent. It’s quite a loving performance. Twenty Sixteen is a powerful album that may run a little long, but it burns with a genuine joy for music that will garner Gregg Stewart even more fans than he already has.

Grace Freeman - Shadow (2017)

OFFICIAL: http://www.gracefreeman.net/

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/gracefreemanmusic/

Written by Raymond Burris, posted by blog admin

Nineteen year old Grace Freeman’s solo debut Shadow is the sort of album you want to start off a career with. It establishes her as a talent of the first rank with vocal and songwriting skills advanced far past her age. Freeman carries the album’s eleven songs with the sort of unassuming confidence we sense in performers far her senior and with a vast repository of musical experiences and doesn’t require much instrumentation to bring it off. Much of the album is constructed around piano and acoustic guitar, but its low-fi trappings are no impediment to the release sounding modern and relevant. There are some older influences at work in Freeman’s music, but it’s equally clear that more current songwriters hold an imaginative sway over her work. Regina Spektor is her clearest connection in this area, but it isn’t anything that ever limits Freeman’s potential. Instead, she does what any great artist, regardless of medium, manages – she takes what she needs from the predecessors who shaped her, filters it through her own experiences and budding artistry, so that it emerges in her work as something informed, yes, but also distinctly hers.

We can hear this most strongly on the album’s more meditative tracks. “Oliver”, the album’s opener, “Shadow”, “Another Long Night”, and “Muddy Puddles” are among the most melancholy moments on the release. The first track rates as one of the best written lyrics included here and Freeman invests it with the right balance of storytelling dramatics and atmosphere thanks to her higher register voice. “Shadow”, the only one of the aforementioned four tracks reliant on piano, also incorporates more of a band approach with the inclusion of a rhythm section. It gives the title song an unexpectedly stately feel that proves to be an unusual mix with Freeman’s intimate lyrical content. “Another Long Night” and “Muddy Puddles” are built around the acoustic guitar. The first track comes across as much more personal in scope while “Muddy Puddles” sounds more like an imaginative act rather than something torn from the pages of Freeman’s autobiography.

Freeman never aims for pop or radio glory on Shadow, but that doesn’t mean her material never manifests any commercial appeal. “Trying to Say Goodbye” and “Dreams” both take up a different musical feel than the rest of the album and their distinctly brighter hue is a welcome change in direction on a collection that often approaches the listener with deadly seriousness. Drums, piano, and bass return on the album closer “Gemini” and the tempo picks up in such a way that it brings Shadow to a satisfying, sweeping conclusion. This is one of the best solo debuts in recent memory and puts Grace Freeman out front in a way that is certain to gain her some much deserved attention.