Having only released two albums, Canadian singer/songwriter Danie Syre already sounds like she has had a lifetime of writing and recording behind her. And with her newest release of Time For the Truth, she is sure to gain a lot of followers.

Like many other singer/songwriters, Danie Syre takes experiences in her life and lets them influence her writing. Time For the Truth, the second release of Danie Syre, was written during a time when she was going through some heartache, having lost her mother and going through a separation with her husband just before recording the album. Instead of letting these things drag her down, Syre used these and other events as subjects for songs for the new album. Danie even wrote the song “Martin” around a guitar given to her by her father who died after the completion of Syre’s first album of The Journey.

Time For the Truth begins with “Something Real”, a song about going through a relationship that isn’t perfect. This song is followed by “Daydream”, about starting a new relationship. These songs are the perfect way to begin the album, as they give the listener just a taste of the style of writing from Danie Syre.

“Little Kiss” is the next song on the album. With this song, Syre kicks up the energy level on the release. The upbeat song is about giving a relationship a chance, even if the relationship seems to be based around two opposite personalities being attracted to each other.  One of the strongest tracks on the release is the title track of “Time For the Truth,” written after the death of her estranged mother. The song is like someone finally saying what was in her heart that she never was able to say before.  “Baby Maybe” helps bring the energy level back up after the somber message of the title track. The song is about living in the moment and allowing things to happen, as they will.  As with many folk/folk-rock albums, Time For the Truth alternates between songs that have an easy feel and those with a rockier nature, and when the fiddle is added to the music, those tunes have a slight Celtic feel to them.

A lot of things have happened to Danie Syre over the years that have developed her writing style. The resulting songs on her second release of Time For the Truth sound very professional. This writing style will only get better with time.  As she is a guitarist as well as a singer-songwriter, the songs on this album were partially shaped with the help of her guitar. The songs were completed with the help of many talented musicians, and those on this long list deserve credit for helping to shape that sound and style.

The dozen songs on Time for the Truth are all easy to listen to and are varied enough to keep the listener’s attention. For only a second release, Danie Syre seems to already have found the formula for success; only time will tell.

Review by Matheson Kamin

Matheson Kamin, Reviews Danie Syre, Time for the Truth

On the back cover of Remedy, the first CD in the series of discs that have been planned for the musical collective known as A Crack in Time and the Break of Dawn, there is a question that the band wants you to consider. To condense and paraphrase the question, they ask: If you take away the conscious past and the conscious future, what will be left? “The ever-present Now”. It is in “the ever-present Now” where A Crack in Time and the Break of Dawn exists.

This collective of rotating musicians under the guidance of Helge Corneliussen creates their music to be experienced as it happens and once it ends, the collective moves on to the next musical setting. Born from a 48-hour long improvisational festival in Norway, the group of musicians have gathered together from time to time to create music on the spot and record the results to release later. The resulting recordings have been produced to create totally unique CDs of music. The band recently put out the initial album entitled Remedy.

Checking out the packaging of the collective’s debut, there is an absolute lack of information: Whether the collective considers itself one entity so that no one person should be singled out, or if there was a lack of accounting for which member was on stage at what point, no musician is given credit for playing on the release.

On a related subject, A Crack in Time and the Break of Dawn also decided to be very non-decisive about naming their musical creations: No song is actually given a title, they are simply known by the number of the track they end up being in the tracking of each disc. As Remedy has three tracks, the songs are Track 01, Track 02, and Track 03.

Since the recordings of songs by A Crack in Time and the Break of Dawn will ultimately end up being released over the course of five CDs, perhaps the collective decided to start the series off with the songs that were deliberately light and slow; at least, that’s the way it comes across listening.

With the three songs that make up Remedy, the chosen music is quite laid back and over-simplistic. When the collective makes the claim that they have a rock style to their songs, these songs are very experimental with a lot of avante garde feel to them. One might ask where the rock influence is.

Each selection on the album encompasses the entire length of the improvisation. Had the group decided to allow the songs to be played out and then gone back and edited them to a stronger section of the piece to begin the composition, that would have made the release more interesting. Tighter production should have been considered.

Although stronger songs could have been chosen, the songs that are present on the album are very indicative of improvisation. The easy-going nature of the music tells you that the musicians let the music take them wherever they would eventually end up. It takes talent to completely improvise music on stage and the musicians who make up A Crack in Time and the Break of Dawn do not disappoint musically. Now, if only the song selections can be stronger for the rest of the upcoming releases, the musical collective can make a name for itself.

Review by Matheson Kamin

Matheson Kamin, Reviews A Crack in Time and the Break of Dawn, Remedy

Good instrumental rock albums only get produced once-in-a-while. One of the most recent additions to that list of albums is Symmetry from Chris Manning, a musician who makes his home in Dallas, Texas. While the majority of Symmetry was created with the foundation of Chris Manning on guitar, Bryan Plemons on bass, and Jerome Howard on drums, the album sounds a lot more complex than having been created by only three musicians. For most of the tracks on the album, Manning created a layered effect on the songs by recording multiple parts for the guitar to fill out the sound. Nowhere is this more evident than on “Devil Dogs,” the first track of the album.

From the first measure of the song, the listener is exposed to Manning creating a three-part harmony using the guitar. Having established the style of the piece, two guitars remain in harmony for the majority of the piece while one is used as the “solo” instrument. This arrangement of the instruments remains until the last few moments of “Devil Dogs” when the harmony that began the song is brought back to close the song out. The song “Devil Dogs” is dedicated to the U.S. Marines, like Michael Manning, Chris’ son.

The album’s next track, “Purple Funk,” finds Chris Manning pushing the layering effect even further. Two guitars begin the song, creating a bed of harmonized guitar onto which Manning creates a “solo” part that adds to the melody of the song. A third guitar part is brought in to add even more texture to the piece. While too much of a good thing can kill a song, the layering effect used by Chris Manning helps to fill out the songs and does not overwhelm the listener.

For the most part, Symmetry was created as an instrumental album. The only song that features lyrics is “Strange Ways, “ written by Ace Frehley, the only song on the album that Manning did not have a hand in composing. On “Strange Ways” Sean Cloutier joins Manning to provide the words to the song. While the track isn’t the strongest song on the release, it does add a nice change of pace to the otherwise instrumental album.

“Waiting,” the second-to-last song, is the track that sticks out the most on the album. When the rest of the tracks feature both a full band as well as dramatic production values, “Waiting” is two-part harmony played without much in the way of production. The simplistic approach on the song gives the chance to hear the talent of Manning as he plays his guitar in a very intimate setting with just a two-part harmony and some bass guitar in the background.

On Symmetry’s last track, “Dallas City Limits”, Manning changes directions, as well as musicians, joined by Chris Cloutier on additional guitars, Mike Price on bass, and Chad Crutchfield on drums. The quartet laid down a track of hard-hitting instrumental heavy metal. While Bryan Plemons and Jerome Howard are talented musicians and help to fill out the sound on each song that they perform, Manning, Cloutier, Price, and Crutchfield sound like a band.

It takes a lot of talent to be able to play the guitar well, and even more talent to compose an entire album of instrumental rock music. When that album demands repeated listening, you know you have something special.

Review by Matheson Kamin

Matheson Kamin, Reviews Chris Manning, Symmetry

I love receiving CDs in the mail from new artists (or at least artists that I have yet to hear of) and then finding out that I do know the artist or band because of unknowingly hearing one of their songs. That was just the situation with the British musician Michael Lee. Not knowing the name, I put on his new CD entitled Face Forward and pressed play. It was at that point that I heard the now-familiar song of “Despite” coming out of my headphones. As I already knew and liked “Despite,” I was ready to hear if the other tracks lived up to that first bit of personal exposure to Michael Lee’s music. I was not disappointed.

The 2009 release from Michael Lee is a strong representation of his talent, as Lee played most of the instrumental parts. The only exception is the drumming provided by Will Gates, keys by Christopher Lever, and background vocals from fellow singer-songwriter Martyn Drabik.

Along with being multi-talented, Lee writes songs that have mass appeal. Face Forward features eleven songs that are varied in style. With the different directions that Lee takes with his music, you can hear rock songs featuring Lee on guitar, piano-driven pop, and even an instrumental track.

The CD begins with “Land of Change” and “Trust”. Both of these tracks could easily find their way onto Album-Oriented Rock (AOR) radio stations. The next two songs, “Despite” and “Tired”, have enough commercial feel to them that they can may end up on Adult Contemporary stations, with “Despite” also being a good AOR contender as well.

Next, “Nature of Life” has a retro, easy-paced sound that may easily belongs back in the seventies and a feel reminiscent of American singer-songwriter Jim Croce. The song gives a nice change of pace to the heavier sounds of the first four tracks.

Staying with the influential sounds, “Youth” has a flavor of another American singer-songwriter, Duncan Sheik. While Sheik is known for having songs that fit on Top 40 radio, a few of his songs would fit better on Hot A/C radio stations. “Youth” contains a harder Adult Contemporary sound, and would fit onto Hot A/C radio.

One of the most interesting songs on the album is “Distant Future”. While the majority of the songs on the album are in the rock vein, it is on this song that Lee decides to take a different approach with an acoustic, folk-flavored song that allows the listener to hear another side to his work.

With the second to last song, Lee changes pace once again, showing off his composing skills with an instrumental piece. The song is a piano-driven tune that also includes Lee playing every instrument on the track. You might even consider the title track of the album to be the song that really showcases Lee’s skills as a musician.

Face Forward closes with the song “That Day”, the music and the lyrics of which bring to mind Nick Heyward’s post-Haircut 100 writing. Having the different styles of music and intensities in the deliveries of the songs on the album, “That Day” seems to be a great way to bring the album to a close.

Having known some of Michael Lee’s music before hearing the entire album, it was a great joy to hear that the rest of the album was just as good as the first song that I had heard from the musician. With the many different styles to the music, Lee keeps the music fresh throughout the release. It is not often you hear an artist take different approaches to his writing, but Face Forward proves that he has the talent.

Review by Matheson Kamin

Matheson Kamin, Reviews Face Forward, Michael Lee

Somewhere between their first and second album, the band named Three-Fourths Down decided to change their name. The band decided on the new moniker of Man Called Noon. Man Called Noon is made up of Tony Giamichael on lead vocals and guitar, Brian Sonnek on lead guitar and harmony, Mike Burns on drums, bass and harmony, Zach Finch on live drums, and Katie Dingle on cello and harmony. It is this group of musicians that have released their sophomore release of Broke And Beaten Down.

Man Called Noon’s Broke And Beaten Down begins with a track entitled “Burn And Grow,” a song about a man who lost his job and has to come to terms with the fact that things just happen sometimes. The song is a great way to start the album off, as it has a strong beat that keeps the listener interested.

While the next two songs on the album are also strong, it’s the fourth song on the release that caught my attention. “Saturday” is by far the best song and most commercial and radio-friendly song on the album. With the song’s beginning guitar riff, it could instantly become a fan favorite. One has to wonder why the band placed the song in the middle of the album instead of leading off with it.

While most of the album features the entire band, the songs “Dying For My Passion” and “Another Ghost” feature only Tony Giamichael in a man-and-his-guitar setting. The songs stand out from the rest, as they sound somewhat incomplete. However, “Another Ghost” sounds more nature as an acoustic song than “Dying For My Passion” does.

Taking a look at the information that is included in the packaging of the album, one of the things that stand out is the fact that the album of Broke And Beaten Down was recorded and produced with the help of multi-talented band member Mike Burns. One has to wonder what Broke And Beaten Down would have sounded like had there been an outside opinion involved in the process. A good guess would be that some, if not all, of the tracks that feature only Tony Giamichael would have been fleshed-out giving the songs more depth.

Broke And Beaten Down also includes a hidden track. The song “Love You” also features Tony Giamichael creating the song with a basic man-and-his-guitar set-up, and Katie Dingle adding a little texture with her cello and vocals. But when the hidden track happens to be stronger than some of the featured material on the release, you end up wondering what the band saw (or “didn’t see”) in the song.

Without hearing the first release from the band, Broke And Beaten Down is a nice place to start when discovering Man Called Noon. However, a strong decision from Giamichael about whether he wants a band sound or a solo acoustic sound would make the next release that much stronger.

Review by Matheson Kamin

Matheson Kamin, Reviews Broke and Beaten Down, Man Called Noon

If you end up in a musical city such as Nashville, Chicago, Cleveland…. you’ll likely end up becoming influenced by the music found in those cities. That influence may end up becoming part of the style of music you are writing while living there.

The musician Johnny Dean ended up moving to the city of Austin, Texas and it’s there that he started composing his music. Soon enough, Dean ended up forming a group to perform the music he was composing. The group goes under the moniker of “Johnny Austin,” a nickname Dean ended up receiving from a friend and fellow musician. The band named for Dean is still a relative newcomer to the music scene in the state of Texas, having only recently been formed. Aside from Dean as frontman, the band consists of: David “Davey H” Henry on lead guitar, bassist Suzanne “Suzy Q” Staton and drummer Joseph “Joey K” Kraft. Although only being together for a relatively short amount of time, “Johnny Austin” released their first album of “One of a Kind” in 2008.When listening to “One of a Kind” by the band Johnny Austin, you notice something a little weird right at the beginning of the album: programmed drums. While the group features Joey K on drums for live performances, Johnny Dean decided to use programming for the recording process. It makes me wonder two things: 1. What does the band sound like live? And 2. Why had Dean decided to go this route for the recording of this album? The obviously fake drums take away a lot from the music, as they are a big distraction.

And then, there is the situation with the bassist “Suzy Q:” While her vocals appear on the CD, her skills as a musician must also be experienced live in concert, as Dean also plays the bass parts on the CD.

When talking about the songs themselves, the fifteen songs on “One of a Kind” by Johnny Austin are very easy on the ears. When Dean was writing the songs, he took a lot of different influences including those from the area of Austin and added them into his style; the results being an album with songs that could be very commercial in nature. The music on the album could find its way onto the radio, especially “She’s So Sunshine,” and the title track of “One of a Kind”.

While fourteen of the tracks on the album were recorded in the studio, the album’s last track of “Freely Falling” is different from the others. That track was recorded in concert. The track features only Johnny Dean on vocals and guitar. This track gives the listener a chance to hear Dean’s talent as both a singer and guitarist, since it is just Dean live in concert. This is a good chance to hear what Dean can really do.

Although Johnny Dean and the rest of his band of Johnny Austin would have been better served if they had released a live album showing the listening public the talent of each member of the band, maybe it was Dean’s intention to let the people hear the music on the album and use the CD as a way to get the people to go out and see the band live. If that was the intention, the album by Johnny Austin should do the trick. As a stand-alone release, however, the songs on “One of a Kind” make for a good album.

To find the band of Johnny Austin, check out their website at www.johnnyaustin.ws. You can also find them on MySpace at www.myspace.com/JohnnyAustinMusic.

 Reviewed By Matheson Kamin

Matheson Kamin, Reviews Johny Austin, One of A Kind

While I am a fan of all types of music, I usually stay in the genre of rock. And while I like to “rock out” to the bands that like to write harder songs, once in a while, I like to just sit back and enjoy an album that features some great writing while the songs stay in a mellower mood. So when I received the CD of “The Nightbirds Revolt” from Dylan Kight, I took it as a chance to sit back and relax to the music.

On a more personal connection for me, Dylan Kight reminds me of a musician that originally comes from Ohio- a musician by the name of Tim Easton. Kight’s writing and playing style along with the twang in his vocal quality immediately brought to mind Easton for me when I first put the album on. It didn’t really surprise me that Kight had opened for Easton at one point in his musical career.

While Dylan Kight had the musical ability to have created “The Nightbirds Revolt” by himself, he took a different approach: To help Kight create this strong album of music, he had some help putting the music together. Along with multi-instrumentalist Kight on guitars, keys, bass, percussion and vocals, Robbie Smith, Ryan Blasingame, and Evan Kinney also added their touches to the album to give it some depth.

The music for the songs by Dylan Kight is easy to enjoy as the singer-songwriter stays away from complex patterns and just allows the songs to exist with simplicity. And while Kight keeps the music simple, he also keeps the music from getting boring. Some of the songs on “The Nightbirds Revolt” can actually make you want to get up and dance. The song “Daydream Deferred” is one of the best and most rockin’ tunes on the release. And “Ocean Room” could easily end up on Top 40 radio, as the song has the potential to grab your attention with its commercial appeal.

The music of Dylan Kight definitely fits into the Americana music genre; not completely straight-out rock, some of the songs on “The Nightbirds Revolt” are a combination of folk and rock-n-roll. With that combination, Dylan Kight would fit alongside that other musician with Dylan in his name. In fact, Dylan Kight seems to have been influenced by Robert Dylan Zimmerman at one time in his life or another, as the sound of Kight’s music and even his lyrics bring to mind that famous folk rocker. At other times, the music has a country flare, as on the song “Ballad Of Clarence Marshall”. And still other times, like on the song “Ocean Room,” the singer-songwriter seems to have added just a little New Wave flavor to his sound.

The 14 tracks that make up “The Nightbirds Revolt,” the latest release from Dylan Kight, are nicely varied from song to song and help to keep the listener drawn into the music. Whether you are a fan of straight-out rock, or you like a little variety with your rock, either way, the newest album from Dylan Kight should give you some listening enjoyment.

To find out more about Dylan Kight, you can find him online at www.dylankight.com. 

Reviewed By Matheson Kamin

Matheson Kamin, Reviews Dylan Kight, Nightbirds Revolt

Kevin Coyle, Tyler Todd, Bobby Hausenfluck, and Luke Gefell have known each other for more than 8 years. With the fact that they were friends and all knew how to play music, it was almost a sure thing that they would join together because of those bonds and create a band. Kevin Coyle plays guitar and sings, Tyler Todd plays bass and sings, Bobby Hausenfluck plays guitar, and Luke Gefell plays drums in the band. When the four musician friends formed a band, the four Virginians decided to call themselves the Virginia Gentlemen after the whiskey. But after some time, the band name was shortened to The Gentlemen. 

Matheson Kamin, Reviews The Gentlemen

It seems that, more and more, the singer/songwriter is becoming a lost art in the music industry. As most writers want to write songs in a certain musical vein, the ability to write songs in various styles is all but disappearing in the music world. So when someone like Shane Lamb comes along with his new CD of “Disengage,” it reminds us all that there are still writers who want to create an album of music and not just put together songs that fill a certain style.

With “Disengage,” Shane Lamb has created an album of music that allows the listener to hear the many different facets of the singer/songwriter. Throughout the twelve tracks of the new CD, the songwriter’s different feelings and emotions become apparent. And the musical ability of the musician side to him also shines through, as the musical approach also changes from track to track.

The emotional side to Lamb becomes clear in songs like “Dream Tonight”. “Dream Tonight” makes the listener aware of some of the desires that run through Lamb’s mind. In fact, the ideas of wishing and dreaming are recurring themes throughout the album.

For this album, Shane Lamb tapped into many of the things that were going on in his life during the time that the album was being created. Because of that creative decision, Lamb’s “Disengage” release has a very intimate feel to it.

While the lyrics of the songs on “disengage” were influenced by Lamb’s day-to-day life, the music for those songs had a different origin. Sometimes, the area you call home can greatly influence your writing or playing style. With Shane Lamb calling the city of Nashville home, he is naturally surrounded by some of the country’s most talented musicians. And with the ability to meet and befriend some of these musicians, Lamb was able to put together a group of players that were more than capable of helping him in the process of putting together his album with an ever-changing feel to it. Among the players on the release is Casey Wood on drums, Tim Marks on bass, Eric Holt on electric piano, plus several others.

Shane Lamb’s ability to write songs of various topics plus the musical ability of Lamb and the musicians who appear on the release give the release that feeling of variety that you seldom get from today’s releases. And while some singer/songwriters will branch out into many different musical genres on one release, Shane Lamb is content with staying within the rock genre of music. And though Lamb has chosen that path of staying within one genre, he keeps his album of “Disengage” interesting by changing the pace of the music throughout the twelve songs that make up the album. From the opening track of “Free” which has a easy rock beat, to the harder track of “Dreams,” to the rock ballad of “Until You,” that finishes out the CD, the songs on “Disengage” keep the listener interested for the entire length of the CD.

To hear Shane Lamb’s new release of “Disengage,” or to find out more about the musician himself, go to his website at www.shanelambmusic.com. You can also find him on MySpace at www.myspace.com/shanelambmusic.

Reviewed By Matheson Kamin

Matheson Kamin, Reviews Disengage, Shane Lamb

There are two things that immediately come to mind when you first press play on the new “4th St.” album by Booze Monkey: Number 1, This is way too good to have been created by one guy. And Number 2, There is no way that the band name of ‘Booze Monkey’ had once belonged to a band that was acoustically based. However, those ARE the facts; at least, according to the history that came in the mail with the CD.

“4th. St.” is an album that was created by a musician that calls himself Blue Ajay. The release is the first time that Blue Ajay actually released an album under the moniker of Booze Monkey without the second half of the duo, Josh Ludwig. But when Joel decided to leave the act, Blue Ajay decided to continue on by himself. What that led to was a complete makeover on what the band was.

With Joel Ludwig, Blue Ajay created music that had a very simple acoustic blues sound. But with homemade instruments added to the simple guitar and standup bass, the duo started with a unique sound and feel and just evolved their sound from there. After the two had created three releases of uniquely original material, Joel said goodbye to the project and left Blue Ajay to carry on by himself.

After a short break to compose a soundtrack for the movie South Mountain Magic, Blue Ajay decided to revive the Booze Monkey moniker; but this time, he took the music to places it had never been before. What eventually resulted was Blue Ajay’s fourth release under the Booze Monkey moniker, ‘4th St.’ There are two ways it can go when a single musician decides to create an album all by himself: The first way (and the way it usually ends up) is an album that ends up sounding like one person who can play a ton of instruments, but none of them very well. The resulting album leaves much to be desired.  The second way it can go when a single musician decides to record by himself is what happened when Blue Ajay sat down to create the 4^th St. album. With no one to curb his creativity, a true piece of art was produced, musically speaking.

Without Joel Ludwig as his partner to help shape the music, Blue Ajay did create an album that contained several bluesy tracks, like Solitaire (The Old Way) and Jane’s Song. But tracks like Dick Frankenstein’s Night Out and Tellin’ You set themselves apart from those bluesy numbers. And if someone came up to me after I had heard the track Hope from this album told me that this group was once an acoustic blues duo, there would have been no way that I would have believed it. Hope contains large amounts of techno and ambient sounds while approaching something that might have been created by Nine Inch Nails.

Blue Ajay created acoustically based blues when he was teamed up with his former partner, Joel Ludwig. However, 4^th St, the first solo album Blue Ajay created under the Booze Monkey moniker, proves he is much more than just a blues musician; he is a musician that can produce any type of music if given the chance.

With rock, blues, techno, and ambient music running throughout the release, 4^th St. by Booze Monkey is definitely an album that is wonderfully unique. If you’re looking for something that is not your everyday music, then 4^th St. by Booze Monkey is what you’re looking for.

You can find Booze Monkey on MySpace at www.myspace.com/8ces.

Reviewed By Matheson Kamin

Matheson Kamin, Reviews 4th Street, Booze Monkey