We’ve had a handful of Danny Schmidt albums cross our desk in the past few years; they’ve all been fine albums - some we’ve carried, the others just didn’t quite make it to review on the site. With this new album, he’s really stepped up and delivered on the promise that is evident on his earlier albums, and made an album that more reflects the intensity and quality of his live performances.
He writes and performs distinctly idiosyncratic songs that are focussed on his own guitar and vocals, with musical and vocal colour added by musicians such as Will Sexton, Ray Bonneville, Carrie Elkin and Raina Rose.
Even with the additional help, there’s plenty of space in Danny’s songs, which gives both his guitar work and vocals no place to hide across the 11 songs; but when you write, play and deliver a line as effortlessly as he does, then it makes no sense to hide this behind full band arrangements and layers of backing vocals. There’s a timeless simplicity to what he does, if it wasn’t for the modern focus of a handful of songs, the material here could have been written anytime in the past fifty years (and probably anytime into the future).
The songs here are all his own, with the exception of a considered reworking of Dylan’s ‘Buckets of Rain’, and they cover a good range of styles and subjects, including a political swipe with ‘Guilty by Association Blues’, and a the fantastic ‘Almost Round the World’, a salutary story of how songs can get mangled in translation.
‘Man of Many Moons’ is an album of real class, his guitar work is beautifully smooth and effortless, the lyrics really pack a punch, and the overall presentation and delivery is first rate – a superb acoustic singer/songwriter disc.
Released March 7th, pre-order for shipment on release.
Track listing
1 Houses Sing
2 Little White Angels
3 Man Of Many Moons
4 Buckets Of Rain
5 Ragtime Ragtime Blues
6 Guilty By Association Blues
7 Almost Round The World
8 Two Guitars
9 On Abundance
10 I've Mostly Watched
11 Know Thy Place
review 7 Feb 2011
