Marcus Eaton “As If You Had Wings”
While listening to this new CD by guitarist/singer-songwriter Marcus Eaton, I recalled a debate often had amongst music fans. Why is the sound and style of Christian music so easily identifiable as Christian music? While never really understanding what the negative aspect of that connotation was, after listening to a decent amount of Christian music I knew what they were talking about. Whenever coming across something intended to be “Christian rock” it was always easy to tell the music was geared to Christians and, surprisingly, often way before any telling lyric was heard. Something in the production, maybe the sound of the guitar or the drums, seemed to always seem very rock “lite.” It’s as if the balls were left out of the music, as if the producers and musicians wanted to create some real rock but felt if they did the negative aspects of secular hard rock would be thrust on the listener.
When listening to Eaton’s new CD, you can throw any and all of those issues out of the window and enjoy the music purely for what it is: great rock and roll covering many sub-genres and shades. For one thing, Eaton has not stated anywhere on the album or in the press accompanying it that he is (or wants to be known as) a “Christian” artist. Still, it doesn’t take a genius to discern that Eaton is a spiritual man. The music is contemporary in every respect and is meaningful and heartfelt most of the time, yet rocking when it needs to be and always enthralling and interesting. It’s obvious Eaton knows how to craft a great album, and as well he should, since he’s been a professional for a long time. Signed by a division of MCA/Universal in 2002, Eaton and his band made his hometown of Pocatello, Idaho, proud and have been recording prolifically ever since.
“Life In Reverse,” the first song, opens up the album with a driving beat and a great immediacy. It’s a great choice to begin the CD as the beat and intense acoustic guitar give a resounding announcement of Eaton’s poignant but upbeat lyrics. Great drumming on the track as well by Kevin Rogers, who adds a lot to the song during the ride-out where his furious tom work brings the song to a higher level of intensity. The next song “Dismantle The Machine” has a slower groove, but the rhythm section keeps the song intense with Rogers’ furious drumming and Garrett Sayers’ exceptional bass work. Eaton’s guitar work on both of these cuts is captivating and makes one wonder why he hasn’t been featured more prominently in those guitar magazines you see in every grocery store. The song itself reminds me of something by The Police if they would had come up to prominence in the past five years or so. Not lyrically, per se, as Eaton’s lyrics have a decidedly Christian/spiritual bent to them, but the music especially, as Eaton’s band seems as accomplished on their chosen axes as Sting and company were on theirs. At the end of the song the band adeptly morphs into a Rush-type sound.
“Eleven” is next and finds Eaton and crew in ballad mode, with a dreamy, ethereal sound featured on the song. As great of a guitarist as Eaton is (and he’s a monster), his vocal work is equally as good and he has a very commercial, radio-ready style. Eaton’s production of the album is top-notch, as well, showing him to be quite adept in the studio as this release has up-to-the-second production, some of the finest work I’ve heard done by someone not on a major label.
The Police-isms come back on the next song, “What’s The Difference”, as the song starts with a slick reggae beat reminiscent of the Police song “Roxanne” and has that band’s way with dynamics and tempo changes. The next cut, “Dreams of Flying”, has a totally different sound, which is a groovy, almost jam-bandy drive. Eaton’s vocals give it a Maroon 5/John Mayer feel while the music is slick pop on the verses and a Dave Matthews feel on the chorus. Eaton’s deft acoustic work opens up the next song, “Weightless”, and the tempo combined with the guitar, lyrics, and production are a perfect match for the song’s title. Eaton has created the perfect musical bed for his song, a rare occurrence of musical synergy which can be called nothing less than inspired.
Next, “Black Pearl” begins with Eaton’s intense vocals upfront as if he is singing directly to the listener. The rest of the band comes in on the chorus and then fades as the second verse begins, executing an excellent arrangement by their use of dynamics to draw the listener deep into the song. This would seem the logical choice for a single, as the song is very accessible and the spiritual imagery in the lyrics is masked.
“Who You Are” comes next and has a slight Latino flavor to the rhythm and the guitar work, which borders on the flamenco, and sounds like one of the songs Santana would feature on his latest albums. Eaton burns the guitar on this cut, proving he is an exceptional player who knows how to use it properly. Eaton’s guitar rages on the intro to “Over You”, giving the song some of the hard rock oomph I have been waiting for since the album began, and finishes the album with the same unleashed passion on “You Can’t Close Your Eyes.”
While As if You Had Wings is likely geared to listeners who would appreciate a Christian world view, the musicianship is top notch and can be enjoyed for its own sake. Guitar freaks and fans of modern rock are sure to enjoy this album as it features great vocal work, excellent band performances and Eaton’s frighteningly skillful guitar playing throughout. All that, plus production work that is top-notch spells a set of songs accessible to anyone, anywhere, anytime.
Review by Scott Homewood

Right off the bat, one look at the liner notes for this release tells the story of an interesting dichotomy to this album, the debut from the band Shady Cats. Though there’s no mistaking that guitarist/multi-instrumentalist/singer/songwriter Grady Crumpler is the de facto leader of the band, on certain songs he almost seems like a guest artist on his own band’s album. Take for example the guest lead vocal from the esteemed popster Don Dixon, of the ’70’s pop/rock band Arrogance and the early ’80’s MTV hit Praying Mantis. How often have you heard of a band calling in a better vocalist than the leader to take the helm on a song? I can’t speak for every album ever released but one would guess never. It’s almost an unspoken rule never to show up the regular singer as he’s the one the band’s gotta live and die with from song to song and gig to gig. However, it happens here with Dixon. A singer by the name of Phil Spence takes a lead vocal on the album as well. Not sure if he’s a “name” vocalist of not, but he sings better than both Crumpler and Dixon.
Rarely do artists come along with fully-formed personalities, having boundless talent, their own sound, and a complete vision of who they are, what they want to do, and how to present their talent to their target audience. An artist like Prince comes to mind in this respect, and though there has to be others, his is the obvious name one would recall as embodying this type of artist. While Michael Lee does not have the hard funk sound Prince has long since settled into, Lee does compare to Prince in many ways. For one, Lee seems to have a vision for his sound. Mixing jazz, progressive rock, and pop rock the same way Prince mixes soul and rock, Lee is able to take his influences, add his own sensibilities, and come up with something unique yet still recognizable. While not groundbreaking, Lee’s talents are quite formidable and his mastery of stringed instruments of all types and well as keyboards and percussion show him to be a musical prodigy capable of doing anything he wants in the music world. Also like Prince, Lee has found his own sound, most likely due to being a self-taught musician.
Though I know very little about the band itself, the imagery Man Called Noon uses in their name is very interesting to me. That it comes off sounding something like a reference to character in a Clint Eastwood spaghetti western almost makes sense as the band’s music has the defiant air of rebellion about it that I like while retaining a coolness which is sure to draw people to their music. I am guessing the title may refer to the picture on the CD of a down and out man playing guitar in an alley, While it seems to have little to do with the music, there are undercurrents in every song regarding the struggles of the everyman to succeed in life, in love and to find happiness while still retaining a healthy self-image and not succumbing to the temptations and problems life throws at you. As someone like Bruce Springsteen sings of the life of the everyman so do the musicians behind Man Called Noon, albeit in their own way. Led by Tony Giamichael (lead vocals, guitar) and Brian Sonnek, (lead guitar, background vocals) the band boasts a solid one-man rhythm section in producer/engineer Mike Burns (drums/bass). The trio is bolstered by Katie Dingle who adds some atmospheric cello to a couple of tracks.
For many years, from the late ’70’s to the mid ’90’s at least, bands and artists seemed to be constantly trying to outdo each other as to how much money they could spend recording and producing an album. What started comparatively modestly with the then-huge bands like Pink Floyd and Fleetwood Mac later spiraled out of control as bloated act after act tried to spend as much as they could adding whatever gee-gaws to their latest disaster-piece. Now, I am not talking about indie acts, but mostly music released on the big labels at the time. Also, note that this endless spiraling of costs conspicuously coincided with the best money-making years of the music business and was a game played with artists as the labels wanted their artists to spend as much as they could so more could be recouped before any of these misguided artists got paid. Eventually, this spending proved their undoing as the business now sits, wasted and spent, headed towards certain extinction as the power of the Net has put business in the hands of the musician finally. Enter artist Robert Valente, who seemingly prefers his music bare-bones and raw, which makes sense right now with the music business in its huge sort of insanely terrible flux. Not that Valente seems to care a whit about the “music business” per se; this is music from an artist who sounds as if he recorded his album on his back porch. This is not a bad thing, I guess, just a very interesting and often unsettling one, in the way of the music being immediate and down home, not in a “bad-quality” sort of way.
After opening the package containing this CD, I immediately flashed back to my youth. Besides being a music freak (and not just any sort of music freak – I was a blues snob. Didn’t listen to anything but blues music of the ’50’s and ’60’s for about five years) I also was a huge comic book fan. The various titles featuring the superhero Batman were my favorites. I think I was into Batman the most because he didn’t have any super-powers and seemed to accomplish everything by the use of his wits and the physical prowess he had honed himself. Later, I realized he was a lot like a musician in this way. Creating viable songs, intricate arrangements etc. takes an immense innate musical aptitude and becoming a master of your chosen instrument requires a physical prowess most people cannot achieve. Why I immediately thought of comic books upon checking out this CD is that Hawk and Dove was the title of a controversial comic book in the ’60’s featuring two characters that were the total opposite of each other. One a dominant, emotional hero who solved problems with physicality and one more passive, who sought to use his wits to solve problems. While I am not sure if the dynamic between Elijah Miller and John Kleber has any comparisons with their comic book namesakes, the two do have an interesting sound together and Miller’s emotional lyrics and often-whispered vocals run counterpoint to Kleber’s in-your-face guitar work.
Though I think the name of the band is very interesting and catchy, let me tell you right off the bat as a high school student who happened to excel at mathematics that mathematics is NOT sexy. What IS sexy about this band is the concept behind what they are trying to do. Instead of the same roots rock hoodoo most two person groups attempt, Sexy Mathematics aims straight for your feet – your heart, too, but mostly the feet. In fact, since the band is called Sexy Mathematics, let me throw two numbers at you: a nice sexy 8 and a curvy 0. Why those two sexy digits? Because those two hot numbers represent the two most important aspects of Sexy Mathematics’ sound. You see, their sound is just about locked into the synthpop sounds of the ’80’s. Yet, they don’t manage to slavishly copy groups of that time. They merely let it influence their sound. Sure, you know where they cut their musical teeth, but the duo ably adds nuances and manages to flesh out their sound so that you can be sure this is no slavish copy, but something totally new that sounds refreshingly familiar at the same time.
While listening to The Other Side, the fine new album from emerging country singer/songwriter Eldon Johnson, I began to think back about what I found interesting about country music when I was younger and why I despise a lot of it now. Country music played a big part of my childhood and was the catalyst for some of the best times of my younger years. My parents were big fans of country, though I must say my dad was (and continues to be) very open to all sorts of music, something I admire and strive for myself. My mom was a little different and pretty much hated the “noise” of most rock and roll and thought the lyrics mostly nonsense but loved country music as most songs tended to be stories about life.
While listening to Eric Kearns’ new album, I was sort of reminded of Las Vegas, the city of glitz and glamour, and the places where fortunes are made and lost on an hourly basis. If you’ve ever been in a casino there, you know about those lounges off to the sides of the main gambling rooms where you can take a breather to count what’s left of your money or cry about the money you’ve lost. Every casino has one, and there’s always an entertainer there, singing the songs of yesteryear and trying to make people forget about how much money they’ve just lost. I was lucky enough to go to Vegas a few years ago when the Vegas power-brokers were just starting to abandon their ideas about Vegas being this great family destination. In fact, it was just about the time that “What Happens In Vegas Stays In Vegas” started to take hold as a catchphrase to commemorate the fact that sin was back in and family values had been told to go back to wherever they came from as they were no longer welcome in Vegas. Not sure why they wanted to become some sort of Disneyland anyway. Vegas is inherently designed for adults. The city’s casinos are open all night long, the entertainment can be okay for kids but is primarily focused on adults and Kearns is the perfect example. More an impersonator than an artist, Kearns’ act is to sing the songs of legendary singers while impersonating their voices and singing styles. Think Rich Little singing Frank Sinatra and you get the idea of what Kearns is doing. I mean, let’s face it, there ain’t gonna be any White Stripes or My Morning Jacket songs on this CD, okay?
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