Danny Schmidt - Owls

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 Eyes
2 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