Dan Reeder

Dan Reeder | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 16, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Oh Boy
• ASIN: B0001IN12U
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #76,128 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Simple Masterpiece, March 27, 2004

By 

Vranjo (Chicago, IL, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dan Reeder (Audio CD)

For his day job, Dan Reeder is a visual artist who paints imaginative pictures that incorporate captions such as: "Mr. Brain leads another doctor professor into the desert where nothing can live." In his spare time, Reeder makes music -- and I use the word "makes" very literally. Reeder not only single-handedly wrote and performed the songs on this CD, but also made the instruments himself, constructed the mixer, and did the recording. What we get for Reeder's efforts is an album with three remarkable qualities.

First and foremost, it's a no-frills affair: Just a guy and his guitar. This puts Reeder's singing and playing directly in the spotlight, but his straightforward, natural performing style is completely unaffected by the heat.

Second, by combining bone-tired blues with dirt-road folk and a slightly raspy voice, Reeder weaves a musical fabric that sounds like soft, frayed blue denim. His harmonies help to create an atmosphere that, like the best American roots music, is mournful and joyful at the same time.

Lastly, and perhaps most surprisingly, Reeder's album is full of humor, which is sometimes juvenile, sometimes witty, and sometimes bittersweet. Many of Reeder's deceptively simple songs take an unflinching look at the drudgery of life, work and relationships, but they also highlight the importance of being able to laugh at it and take it in stride.

These three qualities are not usually combined in a single package, and you might not necessarily expect them to work together well. In this case, the combination produces an album that is comfortingly familiar and yet highly original.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real Real Music, November 7, 2004

By 

Mr. Kurt Tidmore "Citizen of the World" (Ireland) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Dan Reeder (Audio CD)

I buy thirty or forty CDs a year. This is the best one I've bought in years. Honest. Reeder has gotten back to the way music starts out -- somebody with a tune in their head singing it for their own amusement. He has the voice of somebody singing on a back porch at dusk, not to impress anybody but just for the pure satisfaction of doing it. This is so elemental it makes most of the other stuff around sound fussy and over-engineered. It's folk music from a real folk. It's real real music. Check out the samples. The real CD is even better.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Eclectic and, June 23, 2004

By 

Curt Freeman (Kansas City, MO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dan Reeder (Audio CD)

Reeder's individual style resonantes throughout this CD, obviously largely due to his having home-built the instruments (incluidng the amp)he used to create it---even mixing the voice track on his home PC. The harmonies are flawlessly simple, the lyrics heartfelt and intimate. Reminiscent of J. Prine, to whom Reeder gived credit for "writing the only songs I can remember the words to." There is something here for everyone with an ear for down-home blues who can appreciate sardonic wit and solid, unpretentious musicianship. One-of-a-kind.