Danny Schmidt - Owls
by Mark Rowland
published: 18 / 4 / 2015

Label:
Live Once Records
Format: CD
intro
Evocative but flawed seventh album from Texan-based singer-songwriter, Danny Schmidt
Danny Schmidt is capable of making a very simple arrangement sound huge, as evidenced on ‘Owls’, his seventh album. Schmidt is interested in roots music of all kinds; blues, folk, country and gospel can be heard in Schmidt’s songs. The sound of ‘Owls’ owes something to later alt-country/Americana bands such as Whiskeytown and Drive By Truckers, and to the Californian country/folk/rock of CSN&Y. At its best – ‘Guns & The Crazy Ones’, ‘Bad Year For Cane’, ‘Cries of Shadows’ – Owls is uplifting and transcendent, full of great lyrical imagery and music that makes the most of the limitations of the country and folk genres. Elsewhere, you’ll find slick, very well played, very well constructed songs that make for pleasant listening, but aren’t particularly exciting. Still, Schmidt is capable of creating a great dusty, sun-bleached drama in his songs, as evidenced in opener ‘Girl With Lantern Eyes’, and the fantastic ‘Soon the Earth Shall Swallow’ which flits between a great barroom shuffle and gentle and gentle pastoral folk without jarring.
Track Listing:-
1 Girl With Lantern Eyes2 Guns & the Crazy Ones
3 Soon the Earth Shall Swallow
4 Faith Will Always Rise
5 Bad Year for Cane
6 Looks Like God
7 Cries of Shadows
8 All the More to Wonder
9 Cry On the Flowers
10 Paper Cranes
11 Wings of No Restraint
Band Links:-
https://www.facebook.com/dannyschmidtmusichttps://twitter.com/dannyschmidt
https://plus.google.com/+DannySchmidtMusic/posts
Label Links:-
http://www.last.fm/label/Live+Once+Recordsdigital downloads
soundcloud
most viewed articles
current edition
Robby Krieger - Set The Night on Fire, Living, Dying, And Playing Guitar with The DoorsBoomtown Rats - Ten Songs That Made Me Love....
Lida Husik - Interview
Cathal Coughlan - Interview
Rick Wakeman - Interview
Peter Doherty and Frederic Lo - Cavern Club, Liverpool, 27/3/2022
Cliff Richard - Not Fade Away
Simon Bromide - Interview
Candlelight Tribute to Coldplay - Manchester Cathedral, Manchester, 1/4/2022
Wolfgang Flur - Interview
most viewed reviews
current edition
Rupert Wates - For The PeopleBanjo Jen - Fine Line
Kiki Dee and Carmelo Luggeri - The Long Ride Home
Bonham-Bullick - Bonham-Bullick
Dead South - Easy Listening for Jerks Parts 1 and 2
Family - A Song for Me
Loop - Sonancy
Stereophonics - Oochya!
John Mayall - The Sun is Shining Down
Weather Station - How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars
Pennyblackmusic Regular Contributors
Adrian Janes
Adrian P
Amanda J. Window
Andrew Twambley
Anthony Dhanendran
Benjamin Howarth
Carl Bookstein
Chris O'Toole
Cila Warncke
Daniel Cressey
Darren Aston
Dave Goodwin
Denzil Watson
Dixie Ernill
Dominic B. Simpson
Eoghan Lyng
Fiona Hutchings
Harry Sherriff
Helen Tipping
Jamie Rowland
John Clarkson
Julie Cruickshank