Danny Schmidt is an artist I had not heard of until I stumbled upon his album "Man of Many Moons" on Spotify a couple of days ago. He has however been active and releasing albums since 1999 which is a pretty long time. I feel sad for not knowing about him earlier, but happy to have found this because this is a really great album!
The only instruments used on this albums are acoustic guitars, harmonica, bass and piano. And that is more than enough for me. This ends up being an intimate record with focus on strong melodies and great vocals. Carrie Elkin and Raina Rose, who are adding the harmony vocals both do a great job.
What makes this such a great album is the strenght of the songs. There is not a single bad track on this album. From the opening "Houses Sing" to the end song "Know Thy Place" we get a collection of great folk rock songs. It is one of those albums that you play from the start to the end without skipping a single song. There are even some stand out tracks, "Houses Sing", "Bucket of Rain" (A Bob Dylan Cover), "Know Thy Place" and "Man of Many Moons" are all really great songs.
Danny's vocals can be described as a mix of Danny George Wilson (Grand Drive), Dan Mangan and Craig Cardiff. The albums is actually a bit similar in sound to the great solo album of Danny George Wilson, "The Famous Mad Mile". It is rare to find an album that manages to keep this high level of quaility throughout an entire album, but Danny Schmidt manages to do that.
Man of Many Moons is an album that continues to grow with each listening session, and I really cannot stop listening to this album at the moment. It will, and really should, end up on many top list over folk rock albums of 2011. One of the best albums I have heard in a long time. You really should get this as soon as you can if you are a fan of folk rock.Very impressive!
