Off to a good start - I really liked this CD considering I purchased it after hearing just the short clips on the Amazon web site. He has a great voice and the music and lyrics caught my attention from the first listen.I m always looking for new artists and Rocky was a great find.
Like looking through an old photo album - This album has to be one of the best albums ever written. From the opening song White Daisy Passing you are drawn in by the stories of Rocky s youth. The longing for a past love, a past time in life, when things were good and simple. The album tells like a bittersweet love story that begins with a love and looking at the memories of it and it s passing by and ends with the death of a close friend. This album reminds me so much of college life and the newness of it at first, the passing days, and then one day it is all just a box full of memories that rush over you like a warm blanket and all you feel is gratefulness for experiencing them and yet you still have a small longing for the days passed.Buy this album, it will become one of your favorites. I listen to it often when I am typing up reports and notes. Great CD.
...as expected... - A very poignant record, as is the case with his previous records. I always love a well told story... this record provides 12. Get it.
Into the Great Beyond - Rocky Votolato writes like he s just come back from a near death experience. Many of these songs are filled with a quiet desperation over some introspective awakening about his mortality, and nonetheless they re comforting. His voice is somewhere between Slaid Cleaves and Paul Simon on the emotional richter scale and it calms and soothes and sedates.Mostly acoustic, with wonderful harmonies and a perfect pace, Makers is good music to chill out to and reflect on the past, present and the unknowable future. As Rocky puts it, heaven or heavenless we re all headed for the same sweet darkness. If we all embraced that notion, we d have little reason to disagree.Highly recommended!
Dark and dreary, warm and weary, folky and twangy, hushed and indie - Ahhh, the lonely ballad of the singer-songwriter. A lone troubadour, pouring out their heart and soul, naked and alone, with no band to hide behind, no crashing guitars and pounding drums to shield their delicate psyche.There was a time when being called a singer-songwriter was a badge of honor. But now, we might just as well turn tail and run. Sure the legacy of singer-songwriters is a mighty one: Bob Dylan, Elton John, Gordon Lightfoot, Janis Ian, Cat Stevens, Jim Croce, James Taylor, Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell, Donovan, Bruce Springsteen, but you ll notice a serious dearth of more -modern- musicians in that league. That s not because there aren t singer songwriters anymore, it s just that now, we typically equate singer songwriters with commercial radio, faceless pap, bad top 40, coffee houses, guys who couldn t start a band so decided to just do it themselves . I m definitely generalizing, sure. There have definitely been some notable exceptions, Iron And Wine s Sam Beam, Damien Jurado, Edith Frost, Elliott Smith, Joel Phelps, Devendra Banhart, Cat Power s Chan Marshall, Simon Joyner, Fiona Apple, Jeff Mangum, Sufjan Stevens, Will Oldham, and now you can add Rocky Votoloto to the list. Now the funny thing is, as I mention again and again and again, if Votoloto had chosen to release this record under the name Waxwing (the name of his previous band) it probably wouldn t get lumped in with the singer-songwriters at all, and might even get a bit more attention, even if it sounded exactly the same. That s why it s always better to make up a band name even if it s just you. I ve said it before, I ll say it again. No matter how cool you think your name is, unless it s Van Halen or something like that, think again! Try this out: I m going to see John Smith. Or I m going to see Black Dungeon Firefly. Or Strangle Flanger. Or whatever. You get the idea.Anyway, before this review loses any more of its momentum, let me just say this is one of the most beautiful records I have heard in ages and mere months into the year has most definitely secured a spot on my 2006 top ten list!Votoloto has a gorgeously husky, whiskey soaked voice, and has an amazingly deft touch with melody and harmony. The first track is a dead ringer for Iron And Wine, delicate steel string guitar, hushed breathy vocals and sweet sweet harmonies, but the rest of the record is not nearly as restrained. Votolato s vocals are too rough and raw and powerful to be tiptoe-ing and shuffling sad boy style. No, the rest of the record sounds more like that Nirvana Unplugged record, Votolato s vocals the centerpoint, raw and ragged, but thick and warm and completely intense and emotional, more raspy and sandpapery like Cobain or Spoon s Britt Daniel or even Pete Searcy from Squirrel Bait. Not to say that he can t get all smooth, cuz there are plenty of dark and delicate tracks, where the vocals glide smoothly over sweet mournful melodies and hushed melancholy moments. But as with all singer-songwriters (sigh) it s all about the songs, and this record is so chock full of amazing songs. Dark and dreary, warm and weary, folky and twangy, hushed and indie, a perfect mix of Iron And Wine, Ryan Adams, Elliott Smith, Uncle Tupelo, Spoon, and all that stuff I love. Acoustic guitars, harmonica, lapsteel, organ all woven into perfect chunks of dark and dreamy pop and twang.