CD: 15 Minutes (BQE Records)

Home: Fredericksburg, Virginia

Style: Singer/Songwriter

Quote: "This guitarist/singer/songwriter can make you chuckle in one song and break your heart in the next".

By Jennifer Layton

This guitarist/singer/songwriter can make you chuckle in one song and break your heart in the next. He definitely has a way with lyrics. Some great examples from this Elvis Costello meets Joe Jackson crooner include the racy “Care-ee-oh-key Girl”:

Small ass, no cash, living in the new past
Clean dirt, mini skirt, small brain, big flirt
Baggy pants, breast enhance, better keep your distance
She’s so fine, on-line, tattoo of a peace sign
She’s a real girl in a care-ee-oh-key world....

Goodrich experiments with everything, going from happy acoustic pop to funk to a Latin music ballad with lovely classical guitar work. My favorite of the slow songs is “It’s OK, It’s All Right,” a sad solo acoustic ballad about a couple who got married on a Sunday afternoon and went to work on Monday. He pushes his vocal range here, hitting beautifully heart-tugging high notes.

He can’t keep quiet for long, though. After a couple of quiet tracks, he tears into “The Week,” an 80s-style pop rock track. Remember The Producers? “She Sheila”? This song will take you right back. For all his musical exploration, I’d still love to see if Goodrich has any John Hughes movie soundtracks in his CD collection.

www.davegoodrich.com