Home > Magazine > Content
Reviews: The Near Myths ~ Words to Burn
Posted on Saturday, May 03, 2008 @ 16:21:49 PDT
Topic: Reviews
|
Artist: The Near Myths
CD: Words to Burn
Home: Greensboro, North Carolina
Style: Folk/Rock
Quote: "The Near Myths are like a folk group with great affection for The Grateful Dead."
By Dan MacIntosh
The Near Myths are like a folk group with great affection for The Grateful Dead. Words to Burn is filled with singer/songwriter material, backed by plenty of acoustic sounds, such as 12-string guitar, banjo, mandolin, and harmonica. But there’s also a hint of the jam band aesthetic running through this release as well.
Folk is the musical style that comes most to mind, although “Need You Gone” is an electric guitar rocker colored by Phil Valera’s soulful organ. “Even Misery” also shuffles to a rock beat. The songwriting credits are primarily divided among four different members out of this six-member group, which means it sometimes sounds like an entirely different outfit from track to track.
The Near Myths sound their Grateful Dead-iest during “Jubilee," which has a soulful groove, jam-y electric guitars, and a loose vocal. The group – which, honestly, looks a little like third generation hippies on the cover photo – sings about a back-to-nature day “down by the creek” via the song's lyric. It’s a sort of ‘thank goodness the week’s over’ song. “Waiting for the weekend when we can drop that load again,” it says in part. It’s rambling musical backing is where it most points back to The Grateful Dead, while its lyrical sentiment and vocal brings more of The Band to mind.
The Near Myths have two female members, although the boys take most of the vocal leads. Yet one of this CD’s best tracks is “Slip Across The Border," which features Bernadette Greene’s assured singing. It’s a jazzy little number, supported by lovely piano bar keyboard work. When Greene coos, “We can slip across the border into love,” it’s as though she’s suggesting infidelity. Their partners aren’t watching, it appears, so why not slip away for a quickie?
“Winter Dreams” shows off The Near Myths’ versatility, as it has an Eastern European folk feel to it. There is plenty of warm string work running through it, which helps give it an Old World vibe. It’s a sad song, too, as it tells the story of Judy Jones, who was “pretty as a picture” when she was twenty-four. But she can’t seem to remember those days anymore. The song ends with a wordless group vocal that gives Jones an "Eleanor Rigby"-like send-off.
The Near Myths are a talented group that writes all of its own songs, many of which sound like old traditional folk tunes. One called “White Horse” reads like a Masterpiece Theatre classic, in fact. But even the songs that don’t appear to mirror historic literary works still sound good. And that’s a fact, sir, not a myth.
Artist Website: http://www.thenearmyths.com/
|
|
| |
|
Indie-Music
Profile
