Customer Reviews

Shield of Thorns

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

So you were watching The Sopranos. The fifth (and best) season. Long Term Parking was the episode, right? And Silvio's driving Adriana. They're heading down the high way and some song is playing. Acoustic guitar. Interesting voice. Pretty good song. Now you're at the end and Tony and Carmela are in the woods. There's that same voice from before. This time with a piano. What are these songs and who is singing them? You find out. His name is Shawn Smith. He has numerous bands with interesting names. Brad. Satchel. Pigeonhed. Says here that those two songs are on an album called Shield of Thorns. There's no such thing as Napster or iTunes so you take a chance and order the entire album.

Years go by and your musical tastes change. Used to be rock. Loud music. Now it's music with roll and swagger. And, most importantly, soul. But this Shield of Thorns album - it never goes away. It sounds fresh every time you put it on. You know it's a good album because you never skip any of the songs. You know it's a good album because it doesn't bore you. You know it's a good album because you don't ever dare to put the songs on shuffle. You've owned three MP3 players and each one had Shield Of Thorns on them before they burned out. You can listen to it from start to finish. When you hear this man sing, you get a feeling that he knows what he's talking about. You also get the feeling that he understands music. He knows how it sounds and how it works.

You listen to the album more and more and then one day you look up the album on Amazon to see if there's any other reviewers that share the same affection for the album. What? Out of print? Only one review? That can't be right. So you write a short review yourself. Trying to figure out the best approach. Do you just flat out say how good the album is? Do you compare it to such works of art as Moondance or Blood On The Tracks? Maybe in a subtle way? Nah. You write about your personal experience with the music and the songs and how you discovered them and how they've never left you. And you hope there's others that understand what you're saying (about buying CDs after hearing one or two songs) and they take the hint to track down this soon-to-be-lost-for-a-long-time album called Shield of Thorns. You suppose the MP3 copy will suffice.

Shawn Smith, the singer of Satchel and Brad (and LOTS of other side projects), is one of those REALLY underrated artists.

His first solo album, 'Let it all Begin', and his last, 'The Diamond Hand', are both pop/rock classics. They are 5 stars CDs and if you are new to Shawn Smith you should begin with one of those (I personally prefer 'The Diamond Hand').

'Shield of Thorns' is not perfect and so inspired as those, but still is GREAT (BTW, 'Live at the point', his other solo CD is also great, 4.5 stars IMHO).

It has a bit of 'americana' (Leaving California), some guitar driven sounds (Shield of Thorns and Golden Age, the last being my favorite of the two, as Shield of Thorns lacks a good guitar solo), lots of 'balads' (Full Moon Over Dallas, Wrapped In My Memory and the bluesy The Dark), a bit of late night bourbon jazz (If Roses Take My Place, beautiful song indeed) and the pop languid guitar of Sing That Song For Beauty, probably the best song of the album.

As I said, I don't think it's as inspired as 'Let it all Begin' and 'The Diamond Hand', but it is damn good... Actually, it's more like a 4.5 star CD, but I'll stick to 5.