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04/14/08 Rockwood Music Hall New York
Influences
05/07/08 Bitter End in NYC |
For my first review with We ♥ Music, I sincerely hoped my assignment wouldn't be too difficult. I'm an American twenty-something. That means minimum input, maximum output, right? What a relief it was to open the self-titled debut album of Heath Street; it's simple, unpretentious and sweet enough for your grandmamma.
Heath Street (named after the Bostonian train line) is the project of smarty pants Harvard alum, Scott Fruhan. A resident New Yorker, Fruhan has teamed up with Karl Huth, Nick Donin and Nick Brown to create a sound they claim sounds like:
If Ernest Hemingway were on a road trip with Peter Crouch passed out in the trunk, and Shooter McGavin were navigating, but the map is an old map from 1923, and the car broke down 10 miles outside of Truth and Consequences, New Mexico, that would make a weird song. Wait, what was the question?
See what I mean about simple and unpretentious? While Heath Street's description of themselves is a little silly, their music is mature and winsome. As a closet (not anymore, I guess) folk-dude lover, I was thrilled to hear traces of David Wilcox and Peter Mayer in these pretty songs. Fruhan's voice is pure and soothing, with that gentle quality you search for in all storytellers.
Songs like "Yellow Shoes" and "Song for Jim Carroll", with their melodic guitars and happy rhythms, bring to mind gravel roads and county fairs. These songs were my favorites as, unfortunately, most of the slower compilations were a tad lackluster. (Although "The Snales" was a good, haunting little tune.)
While I don't envision Heath Street selling out large auditoriums, I almost prefer it that way. Songs like these are best heard in small, intimate places with interjections of funny anecdotes and broken guitar strings.
Heath Street is currently playing shows in New York. The album is available on iTunes and at www.cdbaby.com/heathstreet . For more information, visit myspace.com/heathstreetmusic.
04/07/2008 21:01:34 kate my♥posts 
heathstreetmusic.com myspace.com
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