Indie Round-Up for March 9, 2006 - Golay, Rivkin, Rentler - Page 3

Rentler's singing, and to some degree his writing, are throwbacks to the Folk Revival period of the 1950s and '60s, specifically the plainspoken voices of artists like Oscar Brand, Pete Seeger, and the Kingston Trio, who gave audiences a sincere but somewhat whitewashed refraction of the traditional music of Appalachia and its antecedents in the British Isles. That mode is entirely out of fashion in today's folk revival, which goes by names like Americana, Alt-Country, and Rick Rubin, and which prizes authenticity, whether native (Ralph Stanley, the Blind Boys of Alabama), studied (Old Crow Medicine Show, Alison Krauss) or transformed (Devendra Banhart). Rentler sings with much heart and little art, but after a couple of songs one gets used to it and goes with his honest and ultimately refreshing sound.

There's one big problem: clunky lyrics. Rhymes that don't rhyme, words that stick out awkwardly from their melodies, and references that are just a wee bit off ("those times they're a-changin'" isn't exactly what Bob Dylan said) come too frequently to fall under the protection of artistic license.

Fortunately, formal flaws are often forgivable - and can even have a naïve charm - in funny songs, of which Rentler has several. It's the more serious lyrics, like the love songs "Waltzing Amelia" and "Moravian Street," that don't trip lightly into the ears.

Rentler's previous CDs are available at the iTunes music store and presumably this one will be too once it's processed by the great big Apple music chomper, so I'd recommend - unless you're already a fan - that you listen over there, check out the instrumentals first, and then the rest, before laying out cash for the CD. I'm lucky enough to have a review copy, but iTunes gives you the choice to download the songs you like. For sure, the instrumentals are going into my iTunes library. Folk revival or not, it's a brave new world out there for music fans; happy downloading.

Available at CD Baby .

Various Artists, The Independents

Norine Braun was kind enough to send me a copy of her company's first compilation, straightforwardly titled The Independents. As with any collection of this type, the quality of the music is uneven, but it's a well-chosen assortment that flows better than most, opening with three strong tracks: Braun's own epic-pop number "Alberta," Dudley Saunders's literary, electronic-traditional hybrid "Truck of the Rising Sun," and Maya Solovey's international pop gem "Dissolving."

Article Author: Jon Sobel

Jon Sobel is Blogcritics' Culture and Theater Editor. In addition to reviewing NYC theater, he writes a semi-regular round-up of independent music releases. By day he is a computer professional and a freelance writer and editor, and at night he's a …

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