Shoebox Letters  - Car Crash Life  (Click to watch the video)

7 March 2023

Lynyrd Skynyrd titled their third record, Nuthin’ Fancy. Even if Skynyrd is a Southern Rock band, the same description fits the new album from country band, Shoebox Letters. With their memorably-named collection of songs, Shoebox Letters delivers straightforward, no frills country. It is a refreshing break from the gimmicky and slick production that has come to dominate contemporary country radio. Most of the songs are the creation of lead vocalist and guitarist, Dennis Winslow. He shows a deft range of lyricism and country composition, but the success of Car Crash Life is far from his alone.

Stephanie Cox often takes lead vocals, bringing an enjoyable tenderness to Winslow’s Dan Baird-like growl. The guitar work is honky tonk authentic, while the rhythm section – Dave Stricker on bass, Brian David Willis on drums – keeps a steady, and sometimes raucous, beat.

The songs range from the hardboiled confessions of classic country territory – “Drinking Till I Can’t Walk Straight,” “Car Crash Life” – to more romantic fare. “Under the Same Roof” is a mature love song, celebrating the bond of matrimony and the ways that affection grows, rather than diminishes, with time. “If I Can’t Have You,” an effective duet from Winslow and Cox, speeds through the desirous end of unrequited love.

The eight song record clocks in at 25 minutes. It is direct, and despite its brevity, feels like a full album experience. With most song ending under three minutes, Shoebox Letters is still able to not only demonstrate musical skill, but also explore various emotional facets of life.

David Masciotra (www.davidmasciotra.com) is the author of four books, including Barack Obama: Invisible Man (Eyewear Publishing, 2017) and Mellencamp: American Troubadour (University Press of Kentucky, 2015).

To read all of David's reviews, click here 

Nick Justice and Feter Martin Homer  - The Sidemen (Click to watch the video)

4 June 2022

Seasoned songwriters and musicians Nick Justice and Feter Martin Homer commence a meeting of the minds on their new record, The Sidemen. Together, they have crafted and delivered ten beautiful songs of traditional country and folk music – songs that puncture the human heart. On “Light as an Angel,” a particularly effectual lyric describes the lessons one can learn from the “scar on my heart.” On The Sidemen, Justice and Homer are looking to leave and repair a few cardiac scars.

David Masciotra (www.davidmasciotra.com) is the author of four books, including Barack Obama: Invisible Man (Eyewear Publishing, 2017) and Mellencamp: American Troubadour (University Press of Kentucky, 2015).

To read all of David's reviews, click here 

Dan Imhoff  - Gratitude (Click to watch the video)

5 October 2022

Dan Imhoff demonstrates delightful dexterity and variety on his new record, Gratitude. Aptly titled, given that he composed and recorded it at the height of the pandemic, the album showcases a light, soulful touch as Imhoff and his adept crew of supportive musicians move through gospel, folk, pop, and jazz.

Imhoff’s knack for melody, composition, and arrangement emerge most clearly and colorfully on the lighter material. “Coming Into View” sounds like a soulful-pop hit, and it leads into, perhaps, the album’s highlight, “So Good To Be a Dog.”

Showing an effective sense of humor, Imhoff sings about the pleasures of the canine life, and the endless enjoyment of having humans cater to one’s every need. The song moves into a jazzy shuffle after each chorus, occasionally slowing down for drawn out verses.

Imhoff has ample skills as a guitarist, playing with a rock and roll rhythm on the opening title track, and even picking with a southern rock meets jazz fusion hybridity on the innovative, “Accidentally Valencia.”

A mini-choir of backup vocalists provide a gospel punch, but never overwhelm the arrangements. The production choices are always tasteful and element, allowing the songs to shine no matter how virtuosic the instrumentation.

Another triumph, “Factory of Tangled Dreams,” exemplifies a Steely Dan style understanding of how jazz can meet pop/rock, along with richly emotional and detailed lyrics about the small frustrations of the blue collar grind.

Forgive such an on-the-nose and predictable closing, but Gratitude offers an auditory of pleasure. Give it a spin, and prepare to feel grateful.

David Masciotra (www.davidmasciotra.com) is the author of four books, including Barack Obama: Invisible Man (Eyewear Publishing, 2017) and Mellencamp: American Troubadour (University Press of Kentucky, 2015).

To read all of David's reviews, click here 

James Kahn  - By the Risin’ of the Sea  (Click to watch the video)

18 May 2022

The necessity to confront the urgency of the ecological crisis facing humanity should pervade pop culture and the arts with an unavoidable consistency. James Kahn – a modern day renaissance man who has written novels, episodes of major television program, and songs, in addition to his former day job as an ER doctor – has conceived and composed an album that meets the occasion. By the Risin’ of the Sea is a collection of sea shanties about, appropriately enough, global warming. Kahn, reacting to the consensus of climate science, has said that climate change is “the biggest existential threat facing us,” and has aspired to create modern sea shanties that combine “poignancy, black humor, and hope” to speak from and to the heart.

By the Risin’ of the Sea succeeds – simultaneously resurrecting a traditional genre and achieving a timely declaration of outrage in the face of widespread danger and injustice. The sea shanty originated with sailors passing the time with tunes sung to the natural rhythm of the boat rocking on the water. Kahn and his small choir of stationary sailors take their listeners through a tour of the world’s folly – rising sea levels, oil spills, habitat destruction, Covid-19, and the endangerment of many animal and plant species. As one would expect, there is minimal instrumental accompaniment – at times light accordion and/or banjo.

The record maintains a sonic and spiritual authenticity, transporting the audience back in time and onboard a historic ship. The effect is, at once, spooky, sad, and enchanting. It reminds us that as much as our problems remain the same – greed, corruption, and the endless damages wrought by the human ego – they have taken on a newfound menace, threatening not only the sailors navigating a rising sea, but all people, plants, and animals who live on a planet of interdependence.

“O the Ocean Rolls” describes the inevitable outpouring of climate refugees, while “Sundown” depicts the slow suicide of political leadership, along with many voters, ignoring the signs of doom from annual climate reports and the evidence of ecological danger that manifests in melting ice caps. There is still time for delightful and wild humor, most especially “Buck O’ Bones,” which imagines a 17^th Century pirate working on a luxury cruise liner in present day.

The third song, “Landfall,” offers something of a mission statement. Kahn and his musical brethren sing about the search for a home on land. Beyond the literal imagining of sailors searching for a shore, it takes on profound application to a world adrift. As the uncounted masses hope and fight for a peaceful and sustainable world, songs like “Landfall,” and records like By the Risin’ Sea, will keep us company and help us get there.

David Masciotra (www.davidmasciotra.com) is the author of four books, including Barack Obama: Invisible Man (Eyewear Publishing, 2017) and Mellencamp: American Troubadour (University Press of Kentucky, 2015).

To read all of David's reviews, click here