Musically speaking, Bridging the G.A.P is fluent in the language usually associated with thugs, playas and gangstas, but the message this hip/hop entourage conveys is far from any street cred inspiration.  If it’s any indication of how serious this group is about saving souls, the producer for The Great Commission is Transformed and all the songs were written and inspired by “the Guidance of the Holy Spirit.”

With salvation at stake, Bridging the G.A.P has delivered an extremely listenable album that any hip/hop fan can enjoy.  The music and effects are tasteful and relevant to the genre and the lyrics are well delivered and intelligent.  G.A.P stands for Gospel and Poetry.  Rap after all, is poetry in motion.  This group simply takes that ideal to a much higher level.

The Great Commission begins with a dramatic spoken word introduction.  A female voice laced with echo effects implores the listener to seriously consider the words of the gospel and the message of this album as distorted guitar, handclaps and choir are heard in the background.  Throughout the ensuing 16 tracks, each of the main artists, Meek, Zealous and Transformed give their testimonies built around a song called “Hear My Cry.”  The synthesized flute and quiet mellowness give the perfect backdrop for each artist to personally address the listener, like a one-on-one revival through the stereo.  Each of these gentlemen delivers their messages with urgency but are not pushy or condemning in their pleas.  They simply ask questions and speak the truth.  The album ends with the last of these testimonials with a choir chanting “Amen” to the final cymbal crash.

The majority of the tracks on The Great Commission however are full production numbers, layered with many different urban musical ideas.  Some of these tunes add a mixture of R&B to the rapping as in “Get Closer.”  Detracting slightly from the message is the lack of bass in the chorus where the high timbre of the singer and the synthesizer are closely related.  In the coda this is remedied as the vocalist sings an exposed solo without back up instrumentation, however his pitch goes slightly flat.  The singing is also weak in the beginning of “Surrender” but as the song progresses the vocalists seem to gain confidence and sing perfectly in tune.

The heartbeat of Bridging the G.A.P however is the suburb rap deliveries.  “God First” exhibits stellar enunciation in this straight-up moderate tempo number.  The dichotomy in the chorus of the tenor singing high and slow with a slight electronic pitch bend over the quick and gruff “We put God first” is wonderfully executed.  The vowel sounds in “Jesus Saves” suffers slightly and some of the vocal lines seem forced to flow into the rhyme scheme.  However, the admirable freestyling in the bridge more than makes up for those slight flaws.

The irresistible beats of many of these tracks coupled with relevant lyrics harnesses the same raw energy as possessed by groundbreaking CCM groups such as early Newboys and O.C. Supertones.  “Captured” is a fine example of this full ensemble effort with clever lyrics and big sound.  The crowd pleaser off The Great Commission though has to be “We Won’t Back Down.”  From the fuzzy beginning with drums, whistles and synthesizer to the fun backbeat that encourages jumping, hand waving and joining in on the “Whoas!” this track is high energy for the Lord.  The rapping is lightening fast and even features special guest Jessica Jelf who totally holds her own on one of the verses.

Bridging the G.A.P is bringing the gospel to the people in a creative, enjoyable way.  These talented artists should be commended for their efforts and God willing, will continue to be blessed as they share their music with young and old hip/hop fans alike willing to lend an ear.

Review by Kelly O’Neil

Kelly O'Neil, Reviews Bridging the G.A.P, The Great Commission

Audrey Silver does not fail to delight with Dream Awhile. An already established jazz vocalist in the New York club scene, Silver continues to hone her craft with a more mature, finely polished follow-up to last year’s fantastic Here In My Arms. Once again thronged by an outstanding ensemble of musicians, Silver’s talents are exquisitely showcased as she excels in her vocal delivery, song selections, arrangements and production.

Silver has a fabulous knack for engaging the listener with her singing, as is evident in her arrangement of the Hart & Rodgers tune “Falling in Love with Love.”  Though the song opens starkly with the bass and vocals, Silver maintains such confident control of the melody that one can almost see her head bobbing and hips swaying as the tempo hastens with the entrance of the piano and drums.  Her remarkable ability to sing independently of the other instruments is phenomenal and sounds completely natural as she scats around the piano.  The larger degree of scatting on Dream Awhile may evoke a contemporary comparison to a more tender and engaging Jane Monheit.

Evidently Silver is thoroughly enjoying herself on this album and one can almost “hear” her smiling as she sings, yet there is a retained air of sophistication.  There are no sharp edges in Silver’s music, but rather a warm easiness that invites the listener in and stay awhile.

The principle arranger for Dream Awhile is pianist Joe Barbato, who gives the keys a bell-like tone as he expertly adds inflections throughout the album, never robbing Silver of the limelight but rather gently elevating her.  The two open the well-known ballad “That’s All” with Silver beautifully singing the soaring melody as Barbato does little to accompany her, but rather adds excellent texture with his ivory nuances.  Silver skillfully carries through to the end of her phrases and seamlessly changes vowel sounds.  After bassist Joe Fitzgerald delivers the bridge solo Silver enters again with conviction through to the coda as she slightly strays from the melody but finishes with flourish with her fantastic fellow musicians.

Barbato’s arrangement of “Too Marvelous for Words” is not as grand.  It is still extremely well-executed but the juxtaposition of the piano and vocals in closely related keys in a minor mode sounds strange with the uplifting lyrics, “You’re too marvelous for words like glorious and glamorous and amorous.”  Regardless, all of the standards on Dream Awhile are given new life with new interpretations, which is one of the many awesome attributes Silver and her ensemble bring to the jazz realm.  Silver shares arranging credits on “Day Dream” and with the addition of guitarist Chris Bergson in a rubato tempo makes this piece a highlight of the album.  Just like in Debussy’s La Mer, there is a rich overlaying of the instruments (including voice) as they gently swirl around each other playing unique musical thoughts, yet all contributing to a pleasurable aural sensation.

It is a wonderful privilege to be able to follow an artist as she travels along her musical journey.  Thankfully a musician as fine as Silver seems to know where she wants to go and continues to get better with each passing year without fail.  Dream Awhile is another gemstone and a truly remarkable effort.

Review by Kelly O’Neil

Kelly O'Neil, Reviews Audrey Silver, Dream Awhile

The old adage “Don’t judge a book by its cover” most certainly applies to Rain Rain.  Upon perusing her melodramatic, feminist, fantastical album bio about a disheartened, enchanted mermaid, followed by an examination of the album artwork resembling a modern day homeless Little Red Riding Hood accompanied by her savior wolf friend, the opening track of The Deadliest Fairy Tales was a complete unexpected aural surprise.

Nothing in the aforementioned creativity foretold a catchy dance electronica beat.  Fully anticipating something more along the folk/New Age genres, the opening electronic dings and beeps of “Surfing the Ink” took a moment to digest.  Then as the simplistic drum machine dance beat settled in and Rain’s confident vocals entered, the song settled comfortably into a retro-Madonna atmosphere – reminiscent of “Ray of Light” played at half speed.  Rain’s voice possesses that same girlish edge as the Material Girl when singing low yet is also crystal clear on her mid and high range.  Her phrases occasionally fall off and are abruptly clipped with a slight vocal squeak ala Rebecca St. James and her vocal flourishes are carefully controlled half-steps that hover around the central note.

“Hey Little Fawn…” utilizes tasteful vocal effects that do not detract from this more melodic, straight ahead dance/pop number.  The song is fraught with drama in the bridge in this modern Bambi story but the tension is unfortunately severed by a cheesy computer sounding solo.  The synthesized sounds are also a disappointment in “Lovers Lap.”  The song opens with a galloping, eighties dance backbeat, but when Rain enters the instrumentation resembles a giant percolating coffeemaker.  This odd array of sounds continues into the second verse where handclaps are added.  While Rain does a nice job of blending her voice, the orchestration does not.

However, the synthesized flute duet that opens “The Jolt” is well done.  The fully produced instrumentation and accessible lyrics make this song the most commercially viable.  Throughout these dozen tracks on her debut album, Rain handles the vocals first-rate.  Her best performance is evident in the angry “Jailhouse Mama.”  Despite the synthesized overblown guitar opening and the annoying whistling solo in the bridge, Rain displays a big voice with true growls and excellent layered vocal harmonies.

The Deadliest Fairy Tales could not have come to fruition without Rain’s collaborator Brian Hazard of the electronic indie piano pop group Color Theory.  His engineering work on the album is superb and no doubt his creative influences served as an excellent compliment to Rain’s.  The two musicians deliver a magnificent gem with “Depending on the Bus,” a beautiful work of art hidden amongst the synth pop electronica.  Hazard plays solo piano while Rain begins with angelic harmonized “ooo’s” to open this soul-bearing ballad.  No techno beat here, simply a lovely deep metaphorical song about traveling the road of life on a bus, where you try to get where you are going yet you have to rely on someone else’s schedule.  Brilliant.

Rain Rain should be pleased with her long awaited musical fulfillment.  Here’s hoping her life’s journey only gets easier from this point on and is accompanied by much more music for the world to enjoy.

Reviewed By Kelly O’Neil

CD Review Writers, Kelly O'Neil Rain Thompson, The Deadliest Fairy Tales

Saxophonist Charley Langer has assembled a fantastic group of accomplished musicians for his debut album Never the Same.  This is not the typical jazz compilation of artists but rather an awesome blend of classic rock, peppered with jazz with a hint of classical.  Langer himself has a Masters Degree in Saxophone Performance from the University of Southern California where he studied under classical saxophonist Douglas Masek.  On the flip side, Langer currently is the arranger and wind section leader for Sacramento-based Steely Dan tribute band Steelin’ Dan.  To help combine and perfect the best possible mixture of rock and jazz, drummer Ron Wikso, who has shared the stage with numerous rock legends, produced the album.

In the title track Langer plays alto and exhibits a well-controlled medium-fast vibrato at the end of his phrases.  His bright, polished sound soars nicely over the rhythm section and his solos are crisp and not too busy.  Every note is well articulated and defined yet rounded off giving a sense of aural smoothness.  Langer switches to soprano in “Epifania” and blends extremely well with the tenor saxophone and brass.  This trio of wind instruments expertly plays every trill precisely as one.  Unlike the thin tone of Kenny G, Langer embodies a fuller sound on the soprano.  Additionally, he utilizes the full range of the instrument instead of simply sitting on the high notes.  Switching back to alto for “Once in a Lifetime” Langer this time blends nicely with the keyboards who crescendo on long tones underneath the saxophone melody, then burst out with fun little fills at the end of phrases.  Renowned salsa bandleader Michito Sanchez adds to the energy with his esteemed percussion skills.

Another prominent musician on Never the Same is guitarist Kurt Griffey.  Like Wikso, he boasts an impressive resume of rock gigs and adds a unique flavor to Langer’s songs that definitely make this jazz album stand out from the typical smooth Weather Channel tunes.  “Remember When” opens with the electric guitar and like a flower unfurling its petals, the song slowly gains momentum before it reaches its stride where Griffey and Langer share a pleasant conversation.  Griffey then expounds into a slightly overdriven solo that is dripping with sophisticated coolness.  Like Langer, his tone is clear, expertly controlled and never obnoxious.   In “City Lights” both musicians get a little more adventurous with their respective solos.  Langer displays a formidable solo, wailing out the high notes underneath Wally Minko on the Hammond organ.  Griffey’s solo is equally as awesome as he gets more tastefully raunchy than previously heard.  True musicians of course have to be adept at different styles as is evident in the following track “Gray Skies.”  This melancholy ballad displays soul-bearing musicianship, with Griffey’s playing this time oozing with sincerity as he solos with minimal effects.

The only song on the album not penned by Langer is the closer “Espressivo.”  Not to detract from anyone’s fine playing, but the blend does not seem to work as well in this tune.  Minko this time is on the piano, where he opens the number with a full minute of quiet, incidental music before the rest of the band joins in.  Langer is on soprano again, but it inadvertently tends to draw attention to itself, not due to Langer’s playing, but due to the overall mellow timbre of the rest of the musicians.  Mark Morris on guitar plays relaxed arpeggiated solos under the piano and Ed McGlaughlin on bass gets to solo – which he does a fine job at – but the soprano saxophone flourishes simply seem out of place with the rest of the song.  It is not until the coda that an aural blend finally seems to have been established with Langer playing dreamy repetitive long tones, but this mood is unfortunately interrupted by the noodling and trilling in the fade out.

Overall though, Never the Same is an excellent album and a real treat for listeners who crave something new and exciting from the same old same old “smooth jazz” genre.  Langer has made some excellent friends who will hopefully continue to collaborate and churn out more fabulous music.

Reviewed By Kelly O’Neil

Kelly O'Neil, Reviews Charley Langer, Never The Same

British composer Todd McNeal has delivered a gem with All My Good Intentions.  This timeless collection of ten songs is artfully written and perfectly sets the mood for reflection and relaxation.  McNeal, with his classical training, lays the groundwork on the piano and keyboards injecting a cool, intellectual jazz vibe into each finely crafted tune.  While some of his songs are rompy and fun, with a Jamie Cullum type appeal, as in the opener “Sunlight Up to the Sky,” McNeal can quickly change gears into a more serious setting.  His more hushed piano playing in the quiet uplifting ballad “Let It Go, Brother” was recognized by the Indie International Songwriting Competition in the folk/acoustic category.

McNeal employs the beautifully talented Emma Lewendon on vocals whose crystalline voice easily blends with McNeal’s instrumentation and with herself.  With a background in contemporary folk singing, Lewendon expertly controls her voice and creates seamless harmonies, as evident in the coda to the ballad “Count the Miles.”  Her voice accompanied by McNeal exudes the warmth of Sarah McLachlan but also bodes a more ripened sage-like quality.

Joining these two Brits on the album are Sydney jazz musicians Dave Ellis on bass and Lawrie Thompson on drums.  McNeal has put together a fabulous ensemble to showcase his works and the best part is that there are no spotlight stealers.  Everyone plays together adding their own nuances with mature musicianship finesse.  Adding flavor to the upbeat “Black Dog” on flute is Graham Jesse.  His neat little embellishments blend nicely in this early Chick Corea style number.  Jesse is heard again in “Star” along with trumpeter Peter Kartu.  While the timbre of Jesse’s instrument mixes well with Lewendon’s vocals, Kartu unfortunately sticks out.  Not to say that he does not play his part well, but the brass instrument draws too much attention to itself and may not be the best fit on this album.

In the title track, McNeal opens with a dramatic minor piano melody, closely followed by Thompson’s calm, pulsating entrance.  Lewendon shares the fore with the organ as the song progresses, modulating to a major key and crescendos to the powerful climax where Lewendon sings “I will get up and try again.”  McNeal should indeed keep trying his best to write more wonderful pieces of music and bringing together other stellar musicians to assist in his interpretations.  All My Good Intentions is better than good; it is excellent and highly recommended.

Reviewed By Kelly O’Neil

Kelly O'Neil, Reviews All My Good Intentions, Todd McNeal

Before this album is even popped into the CD player, one can tell there is something special about Arkansas sweetheart Jennifer Lang.  Her bright eyes and smiling face exude pure joy and happiness, qualities not seen that often anymore on the album covers of current female R&B songstresses.  Additionally, her liner notes are playfully amusing.  All fourteen tracks on 3 O’Clock Saturday were written by Lang and Cloyd R. Willis Jr.  Willis plays all the instruments and Lang is the lyricist/vocalist or in some cases, such as “Hi” she embellishes upon this title and credits herself with “Insightful lyrics, playful delivery and sweet phrasing.”

This delightful, unassuming personality Lang embodies carries throughout the album – with the added bonus that she is indeed a formidable singer.  3 O’Clock Saturday is her sophomore album and it seems that Lang is contentedly finding her niche.  She is at her best when singing in a lower register and maintains exquisite vocal control through ornamental twists and turns.  However, when this New York City transplant attempts to get too jazzy or rhythmically clever, the result is not always as pleasing.  Lang both benefits and falters with her orchestration choices.

“Fairy Tales” is well-written with tasteful mordents and smooth jazz delivery.  The dramatic chord progression with a cool R&B backbeat slowly climbs in pitch as the song progresses.  While the choice of instrumentation aided in the melodic interpretation of this modern fairy tale, in the more chic “Ya Keep Saying” Lang’s voice is left overly exposed.  This is unfortunate given the edgy, driven mode of the song.  The bass is too weak and there are annoying Atari-like synthesized blips that do nothing to support the vocals.  Similar issues occur in “I Don’t Understand” where Lang’s voice thins out as she sings in the upper register and the instrumentation fails to support her leaving the track way too trebly.  The synthesizers do a better job in this song with attention grabbing strings and low brass, giving a spy-thriller type feeling to Lang’s formidable vocals.  But, despite her graceful pitch control in the coda the song ends abruptly.

“Gangsta Jennie” (per liner notes) continues to shine in “You Said” where she is fully-accompanied with a well-blended wall of sound with a nice touch of sleigh bells.  However, this track also ends abruptly.  It would be nice if more of these songs employed smoother fade-outs as in “Don’t Think On It.” 

Lang seems to comfortably groove best in slow to medium tempos with more traditional R&B beats.  When she tries to sing along with synthesized brass in “Betcha Thought” or deliberately sing overemphasized triplets in “I Don’t Know When It’s Coming” it detracts from her true core of talent as both a singer and lyricist.  Lang has tremendous room to blossom and grow as she continues to do what she loves.  The more she dabbles with different approaches to songwriting, the further along she will travel on her musical journey to find her unique niche where her talent will be truly and beautifully showcased.

Reviewed By Kelly O’Neil

Kelly O'Neil, Reviews 3 O'Clock Saturday, Jennifer Lang

Six Songs is a teasing sample of the exciting, captivating yet mellow music Orange Democracy has created.  After partaking these initial half dozen tunes, the listener would still be yearning to hear more.  This small ensemble, consisting of a few of New York’s finest, has created a highly enjoyable signature sound that is musically intelligent, yet never gets too quirky or advances too far off the beaten path as to leave the listener puzzled.  Musical novices as well as trained ears can both truly appreciate and take pleasure in Orange Democracy.

The focal point of Orange Democracy lies around Swiss pianist Cyrus von Hochstetter.  Equally proficient at classical and jazz stylings, he is the principle songwriter for the group as well as shares vocal duties.  His range of talent is eminent from the opening track “Bitter Rain” which features a quiet, subtle ivory introduction that catapults into a huge array of sound featuring a dialogue between a heavier piano, voices and saxophone.  Von Hochstetter’s heavy handedness with the bass notes is reminiscent of a Beethoven sonata as are the entire ensemble’s exquisite use of dynamic contrast.

These highly trained musicians appreciate the fine art of blending as is evident in “On A Bridge.”  New Orleans native Ted Boasso’s guitar nicely accentuates von Hochstetter’s keys in the introduction.  At the end of each verse of this plucky melody, these two young men join voices with Carla Jablonski which creates a nicely layered segue into the chorus.  This Pittsburgh native has a lovely voice and she knows how to use it as an instrument.  Throughout Six Songs she can be heard singing quietly above the melody line adding depth but never taking the spotlight.

In “High Heels to Hell” there is melodic contrast with the fun, quick staccato introduction overlaid with long sustained vocals.  Along these same lines, Amali Premawardhana adds cello interjected with Boasso’s short and distorted guitar effects.  Jablonski comes to the fore in the dynamic bridge as she sings over the piano and cello and ends with a little Frank Zappa-esque scatting.

“Untitled Face” is Boasso’s solely penned track on the album.  His singing style is earthier and invokes a pleading undertone compared to von Hochstetter’s clear, ringing voice.  The guitarist also uses enunciation as an instrument and melds his voice nicely with his acoustic guitar and spacey synthesizer.

The culmination of Six Songs is “Poisoned By The Sun.”  All musicians get a chance to rip in this last number, which opens with a quiet conversation between the ethereal keyboard, guitar and voice, reminiscent of early Chick Corea.  In the extended coda, the vocal trio of von Hochstetter, Boasso and Jablonski are joined by Samir Zarif on saxophone.  The keyboards enter and duet with the sax before the vocals belt a repetitious “ho” as Zarif kicks off a magnificently energetic solo before ebbing away to the quiet keyboard playing in the uppermost octave, like a music box winding down. 

Orange Democracy is bursting with unassuming talent and should be commended for the experimental musical stylings it is creating.  Hopefully the next album will offer even more music than Six Songs.

Reviewed By Kelly O’Neil

Kelly O'Neil, Reviews Cyrus Vonhochstetter, Orange Democracy, Six Songs

There is not much new or earth-shattering on Charles Seafous’ Born to Worship album as far as contemporary gospel music goes.  However, just like the rapturous feeling of cuddling up with a soft fleece blanket and a cup of hot cocoa, the comfortable sounds of a velvety R&B singer crooning praise to the Lord is a warm welcome.  Seafous has penned a dozen original numbers, each one peppered with a tasteful mix of gospel, smooth R&B and soulful jazz. 

Many of these inspiring tunes were co-written with awarding-winning producer Mark Townsend whose credits include work with DCTalk, Third Day and Israel Houghton.  Townsend produced, mixed and engineered Born to Worship as well as provided the haunting saxophone work on the album.  The melodious woodwind is most notably heard in the ethereal “There Is Peace.”  Sharing engineering duties and providing additional guitar work on the album is John Glover who is also no stranger to the Christian music scene.  Glover has had the privilege of working with Jaci Velasquez and Rachael Lampa.   The rich icing topping off this stellar debut is gospel musicians Marvin McQuitty with the steady backbeat on drums and Aaron Lindsey on the Hammond B3 organ.

With such admirable help, it is no wonder that Seafous has delivered a credible, worshipful, well-produced album.  The Texas native stays in his comfort zone vocally on his delivery.  While each song is nicely packaged musically, Seafous’ syrupy voice tends to focus more on the lyrics of his songs.  He has a personal, uplifting method to his songwriting as is evident in the ballad “Just Look Up.”  Many of the songs are more upbeat and feature a highly energetic background choir such as in “Can’t Go Under.”  A clever motif is prominent in “What The Lord Says Do,” where the familiar lyrics to “Go Tell It On the Mountain” are incorporated into the chorus, but with a new melody. 

The members of Shoreline Christian Center, where Seafous leads worship, are truly blessed.  Now with Born to Worship numerous others can consume the messages and enjoy the songs that Seafous has to share.  He joins a long line of gospel singers that people can turn to for encouragement and inspiration from Bebe Winans to Smokie Norful because the songs are powerful and the voices are soothing.  Born to Worship provides comfort food for the soul.

Reviewed By Kelly O’Neil

Kelly O'Neil, Reviews Born To Worship, Charles Seafous

Praise and worship music is an amazing vehicle for Christian musicians to reach out and blanket huge masses of people with their message.  These songs have to be catchy yet simplistic in order to be fully embraced.  This is no easy feat and Isak Bosman proves in his debut album Let Us Rise that he is up to the task of providing fresh new worship tunes in a genre that can at times seem saturated with budding songwriters.

The acoustic guitar player perfected his craft as a former Hillsong worship leader in Australia.  From there he heeded a call to serve as a worship pastor in Scotland.  Up in the northern UK Bosman teamed with Scottish musicians Greame Duffin (Wet Wet Wet) and Sandy Jones to help produce his debut project.  Guitarist Duffin adds some excellent electric guitar work to the album as evident in the bridge to the title track.  His presence adds fullness and uniqueness when blended with Bosman’s acoustic guitar. Duffin shines on the electric playing the most intricate bridge solo of the entire album in the ballad “You’re the One.”  This vibrant mixture of electric and acoustic (or acoustic and bongos as is the case in “Living For You”) along with Bosman’s youthful voice helps him to stand out and not be another Lincoln Brewster.  Adding to the instrumental variety is some sweeping piano and keyboard work in the dramatic ballad “I Will Worship.”

The weakest parts of the album are actually the two cover songs.  Despite his decent acoustic work in the bridge, Bosman’s voice is overexposed and quavering on Matt Redman’s “Let My Words Be Few.”  To make up for this, Bosman exhibits more full, confident vocals on Steve Hindalong’s “God of Wonders” but the tempo seems unsettled.  It is perfectly acceptable and even poignant to pay homage to prior influential songwriters; however Bosman is at his best singing his own creations.

All eight of the native South African’s original tunes are quintessential praise and worship gems.  They are not too long, not too short, have no more than two verses before the heady chorus and are easily singable.  Because Bosman’s work is so good, it makes one critical and nitpick at an almost flawless album.  The best produced song with layered guitar effects, upbeat tempo and full background vocals is “It’s You That I Live For.”  Again, while all the other tracks are good, what makes this one great is its energy and complete wall of sound.  Bosman’s songwriting skills are up to par, now if he can add and tweak a bit more to his production to inject just a little more depth to his work, then the only place he can go is up.

Reviewed By Kelly O’Neil

Kelly O'Neil, Reviews Isak Bosman, Let Us Rise

Clinton Curtis embodies the true spirit of indie music.  He rocks his semi-hollow Telecaster with a fervor that is sincerely apparent in every original tune he belts out.  As a bonus, Curtis is also easy on the eyes.  No doubt that a live show featuring this exciting young man makes for an awesome, memorable night.

Curtis’ up-tempo rockabilly flair is the perfect combo of loud, raunchy guitar work, rough, powerful lead vocals, busy background vocals, swimming drums and bluesy piano.  The energetic title track and the lively “Crawfish Hole” make you feel like you’re at your favorite bar or dive.

The guitarist does have a sensitive side as his gruff voice melts away in “Raining Anyway.”  This ballad follows the Keith Urban formula of “You’ll Think of Me” where the Aussie croons, “Take your cat and leave my sweater…” while the Jamaican native sings, “Keep your tea from China, your wild horses / They won’t ever make me stay…” 

Following the country-folk tradition of clever musical storytelling, Curtis has quite a few such ditties like the underage love affair in “Mexican Scandal,” the wearied sailor and the prostitute in “Jump this Ship,” and the servant and the lady of the house in “Miss Aretha.”  The standout however is “Revolution (Turn Sofia On)” and not just for the wild, unsavory nature of the characters but Curtis’ enjoyable, quirky vocal stylings.  Sofia and her lover are doing drugs and running from the law as Curtis presents their tale with smooth falsetto jumps up and down throughout the tune laced with tasteful guitar work.

Smoldering Youth is a highly entertaining debut from Clinton Curtis who has the songwriting ability, the chops and the innate talent to be a long-time favorite performing musician. 

Reviewed By Kelly O’Neil

Kelly O'Neil, Reviews Clinton Curtis, Smouldering Youth