Search - Sonny Smith :: This Is My Story This Is My Song

This is not your grandpappy's folk

Elliott Brown | San Francisco | 02/17/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Or maybe, actually, it is.I rarely give five star reviews, but this album is so overwhelming and undernoticed, it deserves every bit of love I can give it. The songs all focus on Sonny Smith's perfectly bruised voice. Though he's a relatively young man, his voice recalls Willie Nelson and Tom Waits. And his songs mix old-folk song structure with varied influences and modern themes. A perfect example is the song X-Men, which begins "wish I was an X-Men/Living in Detroit" and concludes with a familiar-sounding "all of the day/and all of the night/all of the night and day" refrain. Though Smith's voice sounds as though it was raised on whiskey and cigarettes, most of the songs on the album end up being more sweet than bitter. The most memorable tracks feature almost African-sounding backing vocals (a la Paul Simon), or tear-jerking violin over the always sparce guitar arrangements. In sum, this album has a whole lot of soul, and sounds more like something from the 40's or 50's than the 21st Century. It blows most alt.country stuff out of the water. Unless your musical tastes are exclusively rap, metal, or mainstream radio, I implore you to buy this album. You will not be disappointed."

This is great

dan | san francisco, ca | 11/09/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"casually sung incredible lyrics. with good music behind it. that's what (i guess it would be called) folk should be right?"