Customer Reviews

This Is My Story: This Is My Song

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

 

 

Or maybe, actually, it is.

I rarely give five star reviews, but this album is so overwhelming and undernoticed, it deserves every bit of love I can give it. The songs all focus on Sonny Smith's perfectly bruised voice. Though he's a relatively young man, his voice recalls Willie Nelson and Tom Waits. And his songs mix old-folk song structure with varied influences and modern themes. A perfect example is the song X-Men, which begins "wish I was an X-Men/Living in Detroit" and concludes with a familiar-sounding "all of the day/and all of the night/all of the night and day" refrain.

Though Smith's voice sounds as though it was raised on whiskey and cigarettes, most of the songs on the album end up being more sweet than bitter. The most memorable tracks feature almost African-sounding backing vocals (a la Paul Simon), or tear-jerking violin over the always sparce guitar arrangements.

In sum, this album has a whole lot of soul, and sounds more like something from the 40's or 50's than the 21st Century. It blows most alt.country stuff out of the water. Unless your musical tastes are exclusively rap, metal, or mainstream radio, I implore you to buy this album. You will not be disappointed.

casually sung incredible lyrics. with good music behind it. that's what (i guess it would be called) folk should be right?

As if Sonny is hypnotizing me to hit the repeat button, that's exactly what I do. I really can't get enough of this guy. Each of his songs has such a classic feel to it. I've tried many times to take this CD out of my player to avoid burning it out and never wanting to listen to it again, but I just can't. It's that good.

I really don't know who to compare Sonny to because he's obviously influenced by so many. The sound itself isn't so original (though he's not an imitator in any way), but the lyrics and music is definitely rare and fresh.

You won't regret checking it out.

-Glenn Edward Deuman VII

Gorgeous album, wonderfully paced. I am especially fond of "way to go" (one of my favorite songs in the world), "milk cow," "i pushed it," "x-man" and the title song. I love how simple it sounds, how it rolls on its own, and how much wisdom it has.