Matt Farr isn’t like every other musician we hear about every day. He isn’t about being a “rockstar” or altering his recordings on computers, this native of South Florida is all about bringing the spirit of 60s/70s rock and making music with that vintage sound.
On his self-titled debut release, Farr offers up ten tracks about living each day, doing what you love, and learning from the moments that pass us by. He provides the vocals and plays the keys on the album, and is joined by Craig Barnette (drums/percussion), Pete Winders (guitars), Eric Brigmand (organ/trumpet), Craig Stevens (bass), and Juliet Rentz (backing vocals). Together they have a jazzy, funky, jammy sound.
Matt Farr’s album is good. All of the song songs are pretty good as is the playing, but the one problem is that after a while they start to sound a bit too similar. My first few listens kept bringing me back to O.A.R. for some reason. I think it is Farr’s vocals that led me in this direction, but musically it’s more jazzy. In this vein, the way the keys sound is more similar to Herbie Hancock, one of his influences.
As good as the band sounds on playing together on this album, I prefer the more barebones sound of how “Crossroads” ends closes the release. I don’t think Farr should focus his efforts here though, I think it just provides some more variation from what we’ve heard over the rest of the album. Mixing in more tracks like this would balance the album more. Outside of this, I think that Matt Farr would put on a really nice outdoor show this time of year. A nice cold one in the heat would go nicely with this sound.
Hot Tracks: Stay, Life Changes, Crossroad
Kevin Kozel- Sr. MuzikReviews.com Staff
July 15, 2010
