There have been a couple nice media bites in the last week in support of the release of my new album Another Gleam — below is the Up & Coming mention from The Portland Mercury on 6/17/11.
In all, when a critic at The Mercury says your record is utterly perfect, one cannot and will not complain. Thanks to EAC at The Portland Mercury for the love!!
READ THE FULL REVIEW BELOW OR ON THE PORTLAND MERCURY WEBSITE
THE DRUTHERS, TYLER STENSON, BRYAN FREE
(Someday Lounge, 125 NW 5th) Tyler Stenson bills his music as “elegant folk,” and who am I to disagree with that? The just-released Another Gleam is his re-recording of his 2008 album See That Gleam (he better complete the trifecta with a remix album entitled Gleaming the Cube), and it’s a perfectly passable recording of sensitive dude folk music, not far removed from the quivering Gap commercial that is Damian Rice, or a surfer brah Jack Johnson. The sensibility of re-recording your old record aside, there is nothing to dislike about Another Gleam—it’s utterly perfect in so many ways—yet it feels empty, like a pristine model home that lacks the charm of a more ramshackled, lived-in domicile. That’s not to say you won’t fall head over heels for Stenson (fans of Rice or Johnson certainly might), it’s just that music with a little risk has always sounded better to my ears. EAC