We were lucky that, in the first ever published review of our work, the writer was knowledgeable about where we're coming from. Don Campbell's review in the Oregonian was mercifully accurate compared to many of the attempts I've heard made by people trying to characterize or categorize our music. This, for instance, is right on: "'Frontier Blues' ... borrows from the palettes of rural blues and early New Orleans jazz."
Absolutely true; I but I have to quibble with what comes next: "It paints pictures of longing, heartbreak, and woe in a readily identifiable Northwest setting..." And then the conclusion, "Out of the mossy glop that is a Northwest winter, this is a collection of songs that mollify, wholly befitting our soul-gazing introspection and weather weariness." I like that Campbell thinks the songs "mollify," but don't like that the exuberance heard in many of the songs is nowhere mentioned. The closest he comes to mentioning that element of the music is when he points to early New Orleans jazz as one of our major influences. Sure, there's plenty o' mournful, lonesome sounds and songs on the record, but if I was someone who didn't know the music and just read the review, I wouldn't know about the rollicking, rocking, rambunctiousness heard on many of the tracks.
The most critical part of the review comes in this sentence: "Writer of eight of the songs, Seamons has a voice of limited range but it's one that adequately infuses each song with appropriate pathos." As the singer in question, this begs the question--"Does he mean 'limited range' in a technical sense (i.e. I only span two octaves comfortably on the whole record), or does he mean that my voice isn't as varied as he'd like in some other way?" What do you think about the question, and what do you think he meant? I know I have a voice of limited range technically speaking, but I've also had people with doctorates in music tell me that I have a very resonant voice, and I've had people tell me they like how I sing. The moral of the story for me being--improve your voice. From a personal standpoint I am mollified by the fact that Campbell offset his criticism with the bit about "[adequately infusing pathos]." From a professional standpoint I say, "Well, it's past time to get some voice lessons--better technique can only help you realize yer vision more completely." So I'm doing that. Thanks for the nudge, Don.
Of course, if we got a glowing review that really made me proud, the reviewer would also point out the distinctive quality of the lyrics in that no one else around is attempting anything like them. If you think someone is attempting something similar in their lyrics, please let me know, I'd love to hear their music.
Overall, we were just lucky to get a review by such an acute critic--may all of our reviews in the future contain the same ratio of accuracy to disappointment from my perspective (yeah, right).
You can read Don Campbell's review of our album, Frontier Blues, here.
If you know of another media outlet that has reviewed our music, please let me know.
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