"Critique" is in itself a big word, one which implies troubleshooting or a polemic or constructive criticism or something. Although I think "critiques" can be very useful and valuable I think they should come in an appropriate situation, a working environment, in person. I'd rather come from another angle and tell you what amazed me about your recording rather than "critique" it. The first thing is that I think that you've managed to paint yourself a distinct colour in the midst of a spectrum of competing tones. From working at the radio station (especially lately when one of my projects is to go through and classify hundreds of CD's donated to the station from the Peterborugh Folk Festival) I've heard a lot of acoustic music that would fall into the same genre as your music and not once did your songs trigger a comparison in my mind. Now that is a great achievement in itself your "musical voice" stands strong in the face of a huge amount of competing voices. A lot of that is definatley thanks to your actual "physical voice" which is fantastic. The recording of 'temperance' you sent me on the last tape you mailed really surprised me and the album kept on surprising me, your voice is a timbre that is powerful and humble; strong and subtle. I liked that, I'm very picky about voices and I really liked yours it was tasteful through that simultaneity of support and reservation. The instrumentation seemed to follow the same lesson your voice gave in it's tasteful minimalism. Not a lot of musicains can sense the value of space, but your recording worked with it well. Also on the musical side your melodies were really refreshing and creative you had a lot of fun intervals that worked well with your voice and had some very creative chord patterns to base them on. I congratulate you on your melodies but also noticed that although the melodies were well developed, they played second to the lead of your lyrics. That says a lot about who you are and what's important to you. The melody was sacrificed at points for the content, what you needed to say came first and that shows that your strength comes from your drive towards expression. That's what can't be inhibited by anything because in that lies your enthusiasm which is a very honest place for it to come from.
Trepidation - That's a hard word to work into a song.. Good Job!
Chris Tonelli
Music Reviewer, The Arthur Campus Newspaper, Peterborough, Ontario
