Indie Music Reviews

Martin X. Petz - Broken Man

published on November 25, 2016

Martin X. Petz - Broken Man

E-MUSIC: https://www.emusic.com/album/martin-x-petz/broken-man/16952110/

Songwriter Martin X. Petz has released a handful of exemplary albums since his mid-2000’s debut and the latest entry to his discography, Broken Man, incorporates all of the elements that distinguished those earlier releases while showing obvious, across the board growth. The nine tracks on this album have a great balance between Petz’s country/folk influences and his Midwestern rocker inclinations. The one constant, if there were no other, is Petz’s voice – it has a muscular tone while possessing gentle, yet dramatic, phrasing. His commanding vocals are, nonetheless, comforting as well and add a lot of value to the song’s more intense passages. He also knows when to switch things up; certain passages require a more dispassionate, even deadpan, delivery and he picks his spots well. The songwriting has a more secular feel than some of Petz’s earlier more spiritually minded recordings, but even when Petz has always stood apart as a songwriter who can convincingly write about the effect of faith and spirituality in his life without ever sounding preachy or harsh. Even shorn of metaphysical or philosophical matters, Petz’s writing is testimony.

Django Mack - ‘Round Christmas

published on November 22, 2016

Django Mack - ‘Round Christmas

URL: https://www.djangomack.com/

These kind of performers never get old and the best of them bring a big part of themselves to every song they do. Forget influences. Django Mack, for sure, will remind you of some other singers, especially on “’Round Christmas”, but he’s far more than just some trivially talented imitator. Instead, this is an artist who can pick up the mantle of longstanding forms, shake them around, and make something different from them. He can even tackle the longtime tradition of musicians releasing Yuletide themed songs for the holiday season and not sound hammy or melodramatic with the results. There’s a highly stylized vibe affecting every second of “’Round Christmas” that sounds almost like Texas blues with the emphasis on reverb and distance-miking that the guitars receive, but it also takes on that slow blues swing that’s so common in the genre. He’s got an ably bodied crew of musicians backing him up on both songs here.

Kelly McGrath - You and Me Today

published on November 22, 2016

Kelly McGrath - You and Me Today

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

The first single from Kelly McGrath’s fourth release, “You and Me Today”, arguably marks the zenith of this young performer’s career. The single is top shelf Americana with a soft commercial edge thanks to the modern production and the song’s numerous melodic attributes, but its merits run deeper. “You and Me Today” is also fearlessly mature and examines one of the most shattering and pivotal moments in a person’s life – the death of a parent and all the attending feelings of regret. McGrath examines this theme with a singing voice with enough power to blow out your speakers while also possessing the ability to lull listeners to sleep or make them weepy without ever cheaply pandering to the audience’s expectations or emotional needs. It’s further laudable that, despite such weighty subject matter, McGrath shows greater artistry by condensing this experience down to a song barely clocking in at over three minutes. There’s no self-indulgence here.

Souleye - Follow Your Heart

published on November 22, 2016

Souleye - Follow Your Heart

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

Souleye hit the national music scene with the release of his 2002 album Soul Sessions and the eight albums that have followed since then rank among the most unique work in rap and hip-hop history. Souleye set out, from even those earliest days, to bring something different to this genre and that commitment to standing out from the pack continues with his latest single “Follow Your Heart”. This common phrase might be considered cliché by some, but Souleye isn’t an artist who traffics in clichés. Instead, he invests this title with both a personal and larger meaning that any feeling and deep thinking audience will be able to relate to, plus it is married to a musical arrangement that shows great intelligence and, likewise, has enough rhythmic excellence to encourage anyone listening to start moving in response. Wrapping up his weighty message with such a strong musical foundation makes it even easier to digest its import, but Souleye’s own vocals are the primary vehicle through which he communicates meaning. He communicates it spectacularly well.

Jemima James - At Longview Farm

published on November 18, 2016

Jemima James - At Longview Farm

BANDCAMP: https://jemimajames-tl.bandcamp.com/

Jemima James spent the last half of the 1970’s working at Longview Farm Studios spending time around some of the era’s great performers and artists. She harbored talents and ambitions of her own that lead to writing and recording material she intended for her debut album, but the songs were never released. She soon stepped away from the music industry altogether, married, and pursued her living in another way. She continued writing songs during this time period and one of her children, Willy Mason, inherited his parents’ youthful passion for pursuing a musical career. He told his new label Team Love Records about his mother’s unreleased album from thirty plus years ago and, suitably intrigued, label founders Connor Oberst and Nate Krenkel pursued the tapes and have ensured that this lost classic of 1970’s folk rock sees a proper release. At Longview Farm has ten songs that dabble in a number of styles but rely, primarily, on James’ obvious command of the Americana genre.

Leo Harmonay - The Blink of an Eye

published on November 16, 2016

Leo Harmonay - The Blink of an Eye

Primary URL: https://www.lharmonic.com/

The Blink of an Eye is the second full length album from New York State based singer, guitarist, and songwriter Leo Harmonay. His critically respected debut Somewhere Over the Hudson laid superb groundwork for this second release, a hump that some performers struggle to get over, but there’s no sense of struggle in these eleven songs. Music and words alike seem to flow unbidden from Harmonay with an apparent naturalness that most performers would envy. Many of the songs are stripped down efforts while others make use of various instruments, but there’s an uniformity of excellence imposing its will over the production that presents its disparate elements equally and sounds thoroughly professional. He, likewise, avoids any self-indulgence. None of the songs on The Blink of an Eye exceed six minutes in length and most don’t go over four minutes. Harmonay isn’t out to wow listeners with skillful instrumental displays in lieu of actually composing complete songs. Instead, there isn’t a single song on The Blink of an Eye that doesn’t sound like a well-rounded musical experience.

Frank Shiner - Please Come Home for Christmas

published on November 15, 2016

Frank Shiner - Please Come Home for Christmas

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

Frank Shiners release of the single, “Please Come Home for Christmas”, takes this Christmas standard in a powerful new direction that fans familiar with the song cannot anticipate. While this re-interpretation never stands the song on its head and rewrites it from top to bottom, Shiner’s avowed personal goal of never covering material he can’t do something unique with is met by his vocals alone and the excellence surrounding that singing performance is nothing but added gravy. It is the same excellence that has attracted a bevy of talented musicians to work at this vocalist’s side and they accompany him with all of the style and artistic force that he brings to his singing. There’s little to any doubt that Shiner’s unique journey, including training as a Shakespearean actor and personal trials that drew him away from the world of theater and music for a time, deepens the impressiveness of his work. If this track is anything to go by, his 2017 release Lonely Town, Lonely Street will prove to be one of the next year’s best releases.

Jamie Kent - All-American Mutt

published on November 15, 2016

Jamie Kent - All-American Mutt

Official URL: https://jamiekent.com/home

Jamie Kent might currently base himself out of the Nashville area for career purposes, but there’s a continuing emphasis on combining style with substance that seems to distinguish practitioners of roots music and Americana north of the Mason-Dixon Line from the southern counterparts. Kent’s latest full length studio release All-American Mutt features ten very durable songs that cover an assortment of themes, moods, and emotions. Kent isn’t afraid to wade into the waters of commercialism and comes back from those forays with songs that will have broad-based appeal but never dare wallow in predictability. He is, likewise, unafraid to bare his heart for listeners in a variety of ways – from the soft waltz-like tendencies of “Red Rover” and the acoustic musing behind “Safe”, Kent never fails to touch his listeners with subtle shades of color and artfully modulated performances.