Tag: Nomad

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Graham Patzner (vocals, guitar, violin and piano), Will Lawrence (bass and mandolin), Nick Cobett (drums and guitar) and Charles Lloyd (guitar and sitar), Oakland, CA-based quartet Whiskerman quickly developed a reputation in the Bay Area for a unique folk-rock sound that paired lush instrumentation and profound lyricism — and for a passionate live show that often featured Patzner singing at the top of his lungs while playing the fiddle.

The quartet’s 2011 self-titled debut was the culmination of several years of songwriting and performing; however, over the subsequent few years the band has expanded their sound as the material has drawn from a wider array of influences, and the individual members of the band have had more freedom to showcase their unique talents. And as a result, the band has found ways to eschew easy categorization — 2014’s  Bad News EP featured funky, soul-leaning material, complete with a horn section while last year’s Nomad featured orchestral string arrangements and electronic flourishes around art school rock. Whiskerman’s forthcoming album Champions will further cement the band’s reputation for a genre-mashing, difficult to categorize sound as the material reportedly draws from barroom rock ‘n’ roll, blue-eyed soul, pastoral folk, blues, and ragas while thematically the material focus on life and love, success and failure, and what it means to be alive in a world in which everything is seemingly small and insignificant.

 

The album’s latest single “Waking Up in Providence” is a bluesy and soulful song that sounds as though it were deeply indebted to the classic rock sound of the 70s, AM radio rock, and singer/songwriter confessionals as the song balances swaggering, arena-friendly bombast, complete with a horn section and a slick guitar solo with a hard-won and earnest introspection, as the song’s narrator talks frankly about the ups and downs of his life — and how love was the force that pushed him through every single thing.

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Gorgeous and Mournful Visuals for Anna Rose’s “Start A War”

Over the course of past six years, New York-based singer/songwriter Anna Rose has developed a growing national profile with the release of a self-titled EP and two full-length efforts, Nomad and Behold A Pale Horse — and whereas both the self-titled […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Although she’s the daughter of Alan Menken, the pianist and musical theater and film composer famously known for composing the scores of several beloved Disney animated films — including Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Pocahontas and others, the New York-based singer/songwriter and JOVM mainstay artist Anna Rose has developed a growing national profile with the release of her self-titled EP, her full-length debut effort Nomad and her sophomore effort, Behold A Pale Horse. Whereas both her self-titled EP and Nomad were mostly acoustic-leaning singer/songwriter efforts with conversational and confessional lyrics, Behold A Pale Horse was a both a change of sonic direction and a bold, brassy announcement of an artist who finally found her most natural and singular voice. But if there’s one thing that holds all three of those efforts together, it’s the fact that all of them reveal that New York-based singer/songwriter and guitarist as a complicated and interesting woman who kicks ass and takes names, who is strong yet vulnerable, seductive yet innocent, wizened through experience and yet youthful.

Slated for release in 2016, Strays In The Cut EP is the long awaited follow-up  to Behold A Pale Horse and the EP reportedly has the New York-based singer/songwriter pushing her musical and songwriting boundaries. As Anna Rose explains in press notes  “I am very much an album artist and a storyteller, so the idea of scaling it all back to the size of an EP was a challenge in itself. It forced me to look at the songs in a different way, the production, everything. These six songs needed to tell the whole story. The limitations I placed on the length made the process so much more imaginative in every other aspect.” “Start A War,” Strays In The Cut‘s first single possesses a somewhat stripped down, country and blues-leaning arrangement that’s roomy enough for Rose’s unhurried and expressive vocals. It’s a slow-burning and spectral ballad full of lingering ghosts of past relationships and lovers, past resentments and a past that routinely finds a way to poke its way through your present at a random moment. But the song does so with a quiet and understanding acceptance a a subtle sense of regret.

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

a Q&A with Anna Rose

Although she’s the daughter of Alan Menken, the pianist, musical theater and film composer best known for the beloved Disney films such as Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Pocahontas and others, the […]