Rating:
Genre:
Folk
Release Date: 09/19/2006
Redbeard, the alter ego of Connecticut-based
singer/songwriter Sam Miller, superficially fits in with the whole "weird
folk" movement popularized by the likes of
Devendra Banhart and
Joanna Newsom. However,
Redbeard's debut album is equally akin to other current
folk-rockers like
Iron & Wine and
Garden Ruin-vintage
Calexico: these spare, largely acoustic songs feature twangy, heavily reverbed guitar parts under
Miller's smoky voice, but they're otherwise not particularly
psychedelic. Indeed,
Miller's vocals are definitely
Redbeard's most immediately appealing aspect: in a
folk scene where even some of the male singers seem to want to approximate
Newsom's baby-talk squeal, a singer whose vocal tone is closer to
Judy Collins than
Joni Mitchell is a welcome change.
Miller's songs are somewhat aimless, most of them wandering well over the five-minute mark without the use of middle eights, key changes, or other helpful forms of sonic variety, and the arrangements (featuring
Miller and lead guitarist
Jae Sherman, with co-producer
Nick Lloyd adding some atmospheric keyboards) tend toward sameyness. While that does make the album drag a bit when listened to as a whole,
Miller's individual songs are uniformly fine.
~Stewart Mason, All Music Guide
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