STEVE UNRUH

Steve Unruh is, to be sure, a refreshing whirlwind of energy, virtuosity, and sonic excellence, whether he is operating with his own material or his numerous contributions to and/or collaborations with other prog artists. His fearless mastery of dozens of instruments alone is worthy of avid attention and respect, but his skill in the engineering and production room is, to me, equally astonishing; his presence has, in my humble opinion, vastly improved the performance levels as well as sound quality in every project with which he has been involved.

Precipice is listed as Steve's ninth solo release (since 1997! I always think of him as a "young newcomer"!) There are, without doubt, some monster songs and performances here but, as before, I find Steve's personal song structure a bit of an acquired taste (especially his voice)--one that I have not yet mastered (totally acquired). As with many prog artists, I marvel at his instrumental prowesses as well as his compositional choices (in terms of both instrumental palette and directionally), yet, at the end of the day, find myself never quite fully connecting to his music. I truly appreciate his contributions to Prog World--especially the way he champions the acoustic side of rock instrumentation but also in his dedicated commitment to manual mastery of the instruments he chooses. (Did I mention that Steve plays all instruments and engineered and produced this album all on his own?)

1. "Luxury Denial" (10:38) a totally unique, pop-folkie JTULL-esque set of songs melded and packaged into a nice 11-minute epic. (18/20)

2. "Uncharted Waters" (4:18) opens with a sad kind of minor chord pop feel with electric guitar and keyboard chords while Steve sings. The flute playing is great. (8.5/10)

3. "Send the Sunshine" (5:41) pure retro-JTULL for fast-movin' flute-driven first 2:30, then things slow down to a more old-time folk feel (Contra dance, anyone?) as the strings (violin, bass, take turns at the front and center for a couple minutes. When the music returns to full speed in the fifth minute, the violin keeps the lead while a full complement of folk-rock instruments bob and weave in support. (8.75/10)

4. "Reckoning" (9:00) opens gently, spaciously, with part-Will Ackerman, mostly-Spanish feel as acoustic guitars dominate until the light Spanish tapestry fills and settles into a supporting role for Steve to sing over. Things darken and deepen in a Porcupine Tree way in the third minute. As the song gets progressively heavier (matched by Steve's aggressive delivery of angry lyrics), I'm really liking this; that fourth minute was awesome. The fifth minute ends with a solo Spanish guitar, which is then joined by Steve's GENTLE GIANT/IAN ANDERSON-like singing in the sixth. At 6:30 an instrumental section begins imply though ominously before slowly building into a full band exposition with trilling flute, electric guitar, and violin trading solos. (18/20)

5. "Suspension" (2:09) kalimba and African percussion supporting flute solo. Nice African-feeling melody! (4.5/5)

6. "Constellation" (5:39) strummed acoustic guitar with Steve singing. Joined at the one minute mark by trip hoppy drum program and sitar. Interesting instrumental choices! At the two minute mark another shift takes us into some gut-wrenchingly beautiful music: chords, harmonics, melodies, it's all orgasmically gorgeous! But then it reverts back to acoustic guitar--this time picked in arpeggiated chords--with support from bass. At the end of the fifth minute multiple wind instruments enter. It sounds so ANTHONY PHILLIPS-ish! Then children's voices enter to signal the beginning of the song's deconstruction and finish. Beautiful! (9.5/10)

7. "Precipice" (9:42) opens sounding as if Porcupine Tree and KBB had teamed up around 2002. Great chorus with "silly life" lyric! The amped up passion in Steve's voice starting at the end of the third minute is so powerful and moving! There's a lot of familiar sound and feel here to the music of much under-appreciated GUY MANNING. Actually makes me want to cue up some of Guy's solo albums. Nice TONY PATTERSON-like vocal layering in the seventh minute--after which the soundscape broadens out with mandolin and lots of guitars in support of an instrumental section. UNITOPIA-sounding section as the vocals pick back up in the ninth minute. Glad to hear the return of that awesome chorus one more time before the song builds into its finale. Excellent! (18.5/20)

Total Time 47:07

I find it interesting that Steve had just completed a significant collaboration with UNITOPIA founder MARK TRUECK on this year's UNIVERSAL PROGRESSIVE FRATERNITY release, Planetary Overload, Part 1 - Loss--and album that I am very familiar and fond of--because there were many times, both sonically and lyrically, in which I found myself thinking I was back in that UPF album--even vocally!

A-/five stars; a minor-masterpiece of progressive rock music coming from the folk-rock angle.

Steve Unruh is a prog folk artist that performs with the bands "Resistor", "Samaria of Prog" and "United Progressive Fraternity", but also has released several solo albums. His solo music is usually quite organic and on his solo albums, he usually performs all of the vocals and instruments. His 9th full length solo album is called "Precipice", was released in July of 2019, and is divided up into 9 total tracks ranging between 2 minutes almost up to 11 minutes each. The total run-time of this album is just a tad over 47 minutes.

"Luxury Denial" (10:38) starts off with acoustic guitar and Steve's frantic vocals, and soon the beat is establish by uptempo drums, synths, violin, bass joining in for a surprisingly upbeat first track, that also remains true to his organic feel. The later addition of flute, played with a Tull-like attitude adds even more energy to the mix. Suddenly, just before 3 minutes, everything stops, and the acoustic guitar comes back alone, and pensive vocals come back. The vocals are quite intriguing, nice to listen to, full of energy when needed like Ian Anderson, yet soft and deep like Cat Stevens at times. The lyrics are also quite captivating and the emotion matches the direction of the music and the lyrics. The song builds a bit, but a sudden bass pattern hints at more development, and the drums burst in with progressive patterns. This soon moves to a swirling instrumental section with an excellent bass sound and riff, fast acoustic strumming and upbeat drums again. Wordless vocals follow the melody played by the violin. The music is great, both true to the organics and infectious at the same time. The violin and flute interplay that comes later is excellent. Then the beat slows to a more moderate tempo and the violin gets to shine some more before the last section of vocals come in. The fast acoustic and bass guitars return and Steve's frantic vocals also come back this time driving the track forward to the end. Excellent!

"Uncharted Waters" (4:18) starts off with electric piano and soon Steve's dynamic vocals come in with a nice melody. The 2nd verse brings in the other instruments, moderate drums, synths, violin, nice heavy bass. The music is more straightforward, but the melody is excellent. The instrumental break features great bass and flute leading the way. When the vocals return, Steve reaches way up into his highest register, and wow, what a range! "Send the Sunshine" (5:41) begins with fast progressive strumming and drumming, then the violin starts to saw away with a fluttering flute and etc. This one is very Tull sounding, bright and with a lilting, danceable sound. Steve just lets the instruments do all the work this time building the song up, but after a few vocals, the music calms to just violin and acoustic guitar playing a nice duet together. Then the violin takes over as percussion taps along. Guitar comes in later, and the picking is quite amazing as the music builds back up again with progressive drama. This is an awesome (almost all) instrumental track that will definitely get your attention. Full of both energy and beauty. Perfect!

"Reckoning" (8:59) begins with a duet between a Spanish style guitar and bass. Tapping percussion and a fluttering violin play along after a while, the vocals come in later. Again the progressive folk sound is strong here, and once again, Steve's vocals and instrumentation is dramatic and progressive, with a strong Spanish influence throughout. Just before 5 minutes, the acoustic guitar is featured again and Steve's vocals come back in following the melody established by the guitar, and the flute plays along with some flourish. Drama returns to his vocals, and the vocal/guitar work is excellent. Before 7 minutes, bass and drums bring back the rest of the band as the music intensifies again and then breaks into a steady, fast beat again.

"Suspension" (2:08) starts with tonal percussion, possible a xylophone type instrument, and flute flourishes. The tonal percussion and flute start to come together with a tropical feel, nice and airy, staying simple through the track. "Constellation" (5:38) slows the pace with vocals and acoustic guitar. An electronic beat comes in on the 2nd verse, but things remain soft, with the addition of twanging sitar staying in the background. AT 2 minutes, real drums brings in a nice, moderate and smooth sound and violins play the main melody. Then the acoustic guitar and bass play together on their own for a minute, then rolling cymbals bring back the full band sound again, and the beat is reestablished. The feeling remains nice and laid back. Then everything slows as child-like spoken vocals come in and the guitar and violin carry the track to a close.

"Precipice" (9:42) begins with a cappella vocals. Then the guitar, drums and bass take over, and the music builds to a nice, heavy acoustic workout. Violin joins in and the music continues to build. Frantic vocals come in, matching the heavy strumming patterns. A secondary melody comes in as the track continues, and then the flute gets added in as the vocals intensify. The music alternates between the two distinct melodies. At 4 minutes, things calm back down again. The music builds back up as it goes, and the track finishes on a upbeat and energetic note.

This album is excellent, totally enjoyable and mostly accessible, but yet progressive. The organic sound is clean, but occasionally there are electronics brought in, but not enough to ruin the organic sound. I find the music often similar to Jethro Tull, and not just because of the flute, but the excellent progressive folk sound. One main difference, though, is that the melodies are less complex than Tull, and Steve's vocals are much more dynamic and variant than Ian Anderson's . There is a lot less electric guitar too, most of the guitar work done by heavy bass and acoustic guitar, which still becomes quite heavy at times with very dynamic playing. I find this album enjoyable from the get to, and even though all of the playing is done by one person, you would never be able to guess because it seems that Unruh is a master of all of them. I highly recommend this album to those that love the prog folk sound of Jethro Tull and others. The music is a bit cleaner and simpler, but the talent is amazing all around.

The Great Divide is an acoustic, old English and bluegrass-influenced version of Prog Folk not unlike The Strawbs, Gryphon or the more acoustically-oriented solo albums of Ian Anderson, Cat Stevens, or Peter Shelley with a little pinch each of Peter Hammill and Frank Zappa thrown in there for good measure. Entertaining, mostly unpredictable, and, thankfully, mostly instrumental. (I cringe to think of hearing this music delivered by electric instruments. Devin Townsend!) The play of a full complement of rock band instrumentation is nice. Though I'm not necessarily a fan of this type of music, I appreciate it's integrity both compositionally and skill-wise.

I guess I am one of the very few who prefers Steve Unruhs solo work to his recent band activities. I was very happy to hear that 4 years after the excellent Challenging gravity another solo release of Steve was on its way.

Music from Air is different from all his other solo releases. First it's the soundtrack of the musical movie 'Air' which was released in 2010. Steve felt there were still some minor flaws in the original recordings and early 2014 he finally found time to correct them. Unfortunately the movie 'Air' never made it to the European arthouse cinemas but I saw it got some favorable comments on imdb. I can only asses the CD but I am curious how it all works in the context of the movie.

All his other CDs were almost completely recorded alone. This CD has a lot of other musicians, most notably the singing actors but there is also a trumpet player, a brass band, a chamber orchestra and a string quartet on the album. On his regular solo albums the tunes are all in his unique aggressive folk-prog style. On this album e each tune has its own unique style. The albums opens in rather familiar territory with a folk rock instrumental. The next tune 'the measure that is missing' is a beefy rocker that wouldn't be out of place on resistors first album. Further on the album we hear some pure jazz, some classical oriented stuff, hiphop (with Steve rapping!), a punkish brass track like Gogol Bordello but most of all we hear a lot of good songs. The standout track for me is the dark melancholic track 'life without pain'. I wouldn't call it a perfect album or 'the best he ever did' (that award still goes to the amazing 'the Great Divide"). Just one or two tracks work a bit less for me but I guess that is inevitable for an album that covers so much ground.

Leaves me to answer one final question: is this prog? Judging from all the individual songs I would honestly say no. On the other hand, an album that covers, Folk, jazz, Classical, hardrock, hiphop and punk sure is prog in my book!

Highly recommede for all Steve Unruh fans and all fans of good songwriting

One talented man, one extraordinary album!

There are some people whose name is still unknown, whose music doesn't cross everybody's minds, but whose talent is invaluable. One of them is this Steve Unruh. A North American musician who has been creating exquisite music for a long time, his first solo album came out in 1997 with the title of Believe?, and now in this 2010 he has released his 8th studio album entitled "Challenging Gravity", an almost acoustic album that shows the sensibility and quality of this musician.

This album features eight songs and a total time of 50 minutes. It kicks off with "Twilight in India", which is a very nice melody where the acoustic guitar begins with a kind of Indian sound, a minute later the vocals appear and start a communication between guitar and voice, the mood is very calm until minute 3:20 when it turns more aggressive with the introduction of drums and a faster sound. The final minute is just as the song began, with that acoustic Indian guitar.

Now I am excited, because "Challenging Gravity" did something marvelous to me since the very first time I listened to it, and so far I could say it is my favorite song of the year. The music is totally different to the first song; here you will listen to several instruments that manage to excel no matter how high or low they sound, I mean, despite sounding all at the same time, you will notice every one of them and you will receive them with your open arms. The rhythm is faster but more exciting. The song's introduction finishes after a minute where there is a stop and Unruh's vocals appear. Then the song becomes friendlier with a completely gentle sound. But the greatness of this song is its richness of sounds and quality in each of its changes. It lasts 11 minutes that will end in a lightning; with a beautiful interlude where violins appear, but the song ends with that aggressive and exciting sound.

"The Ocean" is a shorter song that calms down the excitation caused by the previous song. It is a tranquil composition with a simple structure in the beginning, later new elements are added and the sound changes a little bit, it becomes actually more interesting. The part where the flute appears is excellent, it may sound quite simple actually but it is great.

"Bluebird" is a beautiful short ballad, besides that delicate guitar sound, there is an extraordinary violin that takes you to another place, a moment of reflection. The next song is also a short one, its title is "Fighting Gravity" and the sound is still gentle, this time the vocals return and if you have nice memory, this is a nice song to sing, though not really my favorite of this album.

"The Path to Alhambra" is much more interesting than the previous one. The beginning shows a delicate acoustic guitar, which seconds later is accompanied by a disarming violin sound; the sense of melancholy is present here. As you guess, this piece has a special flavor, because it will immediately take you to Spain, and then you will have a short trip to Alhambra. Unruh's guitar and violin performance here is outstanding.

"Dissolve" starts again with a melancholic mood that later will change when drums enter. The bass sound is splendid and the song as a whole is very strong. Seconds before reaching minute four, the song turns a bit aggressive creating a tense atmosphere that will be complemented with a nervous violin sound. In the end it is an interesting track.

The album finishes with "Reflecting Pond" a song whose first minutes seems to be excepting the end, I mean the mood suggest melancholy, as if it was the end of the road. Later it changes and creates a sensation of satisfaction. The tune is up seconds later where that predominant gentle sound returns. The song finishes as it began, goodbye.

An extraordinary album that can be enjoyed by any progressive rock lover, I really recommend to take a listen to Steve Unruh's music, he is a great composer and performer, believe me. Final grade, four stars.

Enjoy it!

Progressive Folk heaven!

Steve Unruh has managed to master the playing of a big array of instruments, and this album is a proof of what he can do almost acoustically and completely solo with a few instruments (specifically: acoustic guitars, violin, vocals, drums, electric bass and flute) but in quite a different manner of what you may expect. Here you won't find crazy soloing or wild displays of skill (with counted exceptions), instead you are being treated with a tasteful display of sophistication and compositional skill in a very intimate and sober album.

Unruh's main instruments are the guitar and the violin, and these are the principal instrumental elements of the music presented here + his exceptional voice and lyrical abilities provide the music with a unique aura.

Now track by track:

Twilight In India, as the title announces, opens the album dominated by indian-styled melodies. This track presents a very simple instrumentation, something that doesn't make it anything of a leser composition, consisting on an acoustic guitar and Steve's vocals on the spotlight joined by some percussions on the background. An amazing ballad! Brilliant on its simplicity. 4.25

Challenging shows a more aggressive and somewhat complex side of Unruh's music, here we get a sample of every single instrument used in the album (except for the flute). At about the middle, the mood turns mellower with an amazingly beautiful violin taking the lead, to later return to the initial aggressiveness and conclude magnificently. 4.75

The Ocean developes on the mellow nature of the previous' track middle section, this time with the inclussion of great flute work (sort of Jethro Tull-ish but not quite). 4

The melancholic Bluebird is a violin driven instrumental backed by the guitar and the rhythm section. 4.25

Fighting Gravity is another nice ballad led by the guitar in the same vein of the previous pieces (I don't know why, but the vocals here keep reminding me of Neal Morse's). 4

The Path of Alhambra explores a classical and flamenco spanish guitar approach (which, through the Classical Guitar EP, was the style that initially got me into Unruh's music), again instrumental, with beautiful flamenco styled violin interventions. This piece features one of the very few pure skill demostrations present on this album. Sublime! 4.75

Dissolve approaches the aggressiveness of Challenging but in a proggier/experimental fashion (due to the lack of a better term). The highlight in here is the violin/guitar interplay. 4.5

Reflecting Pond closes the album with another take on the classical guitar style, this time with vocals. The final product is an emotional and hypnotic piece led by highly skilled guitar playing and beautiful vocals. 4.75

Total: 4.41

Don't get fooled by the rating, Fighting Gravity is a masterpiece of folk music (progressive folk maybe) but the rock element isn't really dominant and sometimes is even absent. From a progressive rock perspective this one is just an excellent addition to any prog music collection. Believe me, it is much more than that.

The genius behind this creation lies in its simplicity. The format is simple, but the music manages to be complex in structure, challenging and, above all, very tasteful. If you enjoy of good skilled folk music with classical/flamenco and prog rock touches this is guaranteed to become your new obsession, it is impossible to get tired of it!.

If you need some references this is, without being really precise, somewhere in the middle between Bob Dylan and acoustic Jethro Tull with some classical Spanish edges.

One of the best albums to be released in the last few decades! (and of course in my top 2010 albums list) 100% recomended for progressive folk nuts like myself!

Recommendation: best when listened as a whole, not just as individual tracks.

My ongoing Prog research lead me to this lair of beautiful sounds called "Challenging Gravity". To be honest, I was expecting decent modern Prog Folk album, but how was I wrong by assuming this, so very wrong.

If Eclectic means various, then this album surely is influenced by manThere are two oriental tracks, Twilight in India and The Path to Alhambra which depicts this theme quite well and brings fresh air to this 50 minutes composition.

Challenging is battle between all instruments featured here, battle for dominance, which one will be the prominent one, as if they were living beings and tried to please us, listeners. Then in the middle the song breaks and comes soft plunking and gentle violin (that's advantage of strings, they can sounds like that when they want - I mean when player wants).

Thanks Steve for this album, you have really made my day with this. Without bias, without blindly supporting him, I can easily say that it is one of the best albums of this year. Drums are basses are electric, but I didn't notice until I read it (in "Line-up / Musicians).

Now comes part with shorter songs, so far we had 7/11 minutes long ones and no songs with average length little bit over 4 minutes. First one (and also the longest one) is The Ocean is (you guess) calm song that couldn't be done better, quite well depicts this atmosphere with instruments given. Water body is probably the best musically depicted with acoustic guitar, which I'm starting to take as s fact. Later also flute joins.

Bluebird is on the contrary melancholic song and Fighting Gravity, title track, shows life story of some kind of underdog man rejected by society. I admit, I'm not that good on understanding lyrics at first few listenings, so it may be about Newton (logical choice, he is the one I usually connect with "Theory of Gravity"), but who knows.

It's like what Jeff Beck does with his guitar or Rick Wakeman with keyboards (even not that skilled, that I have to admit), Steve doesn't play exactly in virtuoso way, but he has a gift to create very suggestive moods from these instruments. One man band and sounds like completely normal Prog Folk group, that's important too.

Three years fans waited for new Steve Unruh album, but their waiting was greatly rewarded. Of course, he has his own band too (Resistor, which I hope will soon get recognized here as Prog group)

Disolve is probably the most psychedelic one of these songs (these elements glimpses in final stage of this song), otherwise it's quite Heavy song. Final track Reflecting Pond which closes this wonderful album, using this kind of optimistic sounding chords that second (or two seconds) later turns out to be sad ones, exactly - melancholic song again that uses layering and then suddenly dissolves before the end only come again with reprise of previously used structures of the same song.

4(+), this combination of various elements in such interesting way is simply irresistible.

teve has released quite a number of quality releases over the years; 8 solo albums and 3 albums with his band Resistor. Of all these records, "the Great Divide' is the one I like best.

Steve Unruh solo albums are solo albums in the thru sense of the word: written, played and produced by Steve Unruh alone. Luckily this doesn't result in flat overproduced records. All his albums sound fresh and energetic like they are being played by a band live in the studio. The great Divide is no exception.

So what about the music? Steve plays acoustic progressive folk music. Over the years you'll find a steady progress n his albums. They become more mature, varied and, in my opinion, simply better.

The great divide starts off with a song with the strange name 'Attack, Retreat, Then Attack Again Of The AcoustiChromatic Pixies'. The music is also unusual; It's a strange mix between the Dixie dregs and Univers Zero. The songs starts off with fast paced country loops on acoustic guitar, but somewhere half way the song changes into a more Rio/Avant song. Towards the end the two styles are combined together and they sound surprisingly well together. It's a great and very original start of the album.

Next is the 36 minute epic 'The great divide'', also the only vocal track on the album. Musically you could say it is a typical prog epic. It's composed of many different parts, with a recurring theme at the end. My favourite part is "something in heaven bleeds'. I can also imagine this piece working very well in a heavy Resistor version! The lyrical content is interesting; it deals with the relationship between man and god. Uh oh ... a prog epic with religious content: comparisons with Neal Morse are quickly made. But thankfully the lyrics here never become preachy in any way. In fact the lyrics offer as much to the atheist as to the believer.

Next piece is the quiet folky 'The River's Bend'. Maybe you could call this the least interesting piece on the album. I prefer to call it a welcome point of rest on the album. A beautiful melancholic tune. A perfect moment to refill the wine glass ( or whiskey glass in my case) and relax.

On the next song 'Seven Journeys East' the energy levels are switched up again. A great diverse instrumental folk tune where flute, violin and acoustic guitar constantly fight for the lead but none of them seem to win. A great interplay between the various instruments! Hard to believe that this is just one guy in the studio.

I think 'The great Divide' is one of these great undiscovered gems in progressive rock. An absolutely essential release for lover of progressive folk music.

Challenging gravity is the 8th solo album of multi-instrumentalist Steve Unruh. His solo albums are mainly in the acoustic folk-prog style and are all written, played and performed by himself.

There are two pitfalls for a such a solo artist 1 The records start to sound overproduced and lifeless because of spending too much time alone in the studio 2 The records sound samey because of the lack of outside influences

I can gladly say that Steve Unruh managed to avoid these pitfalls by a mile! The record sounds very energetic and fresh, like its been recorded live by a full band. At the same time the sound quality is amazing. Everything is recorded crystal clear with an amazing dynamic range.

The record is a development from his previous recording 'The great Divide". As much as I liked that one (his very best imho), I am still glad he didn't try to make the same record twice. On Challenging gravity Steve more then even presents himself as a progressive singer-songwriter. The songs are more compact (without getting less complex!) and the lyrics are more personal.

Other reviewers already already went into depth into the individual songs. All I can say is that Challenging gravity doesn't have one weak moment. The record simply ranks up with the best the man has recorded so far.

4,5 stars

Joost

This is the 3rd sampler from Steve Unruh after the 2005 and 2007 respective ones. In the same manner, the sampler picks out single tracks from Steve's various works and blends them together. To those unfamiliar, Steve Unruh is a one-man prog-folk band, playing all the instruments with an exceptional way. The addition of flute and violin along with the powerful, dynamic acoustic guitar playing is what makes his music different and worthwhile paying attention.

Most of the compositions are again instrumental; where vocals are present these are delivered in a good fashion. The opening track is pretty self-explanatory (!) as it is a mixture of musical 'attacks' and 'retreats'; or in other terms fast-paced guitar/violin acoustic passages interchanging with mellower parts and numerous breaks; a very dynamic track and one of the best compositions that I have heard from this man. The flute melodies flowing through the second half of the track are simply beautiful while after this short break the dynamic virtuosic acoustic-guitar playing returns and concludes the track. The artist himself describes it as "one of the hardest he has ever composed".

With the exception of Two Little Awakenings (title track from the respective album), the tracks in this compilation represent later works from the artist. Another element that was absent from previous compositions is the inclusion of a full-band track called Restless Angel, taken from Resistor's debut album. The track definitely bears Steve's compositional elements; however there are no acoustic guitars, flutes and violins dominating here, just pure heavy rock with smart melodies and powerful guitar riffs - the only "electric" song in this compilation. This mini epic (i.e. about 12 minutes long) is described by the composer himself as "one of his favourite recent pieces" and indeed it sounds as a solid, well-worked rock track. The violins that kick in towards the end of the track give off a fine touch.

Lotus Victorius, yet another instrumental track, comes from the album 'Song to the Sky' and is pretty representative of Unruh's overall sound: simple acoustic guitar melodies coloured with a passionate violin performance which resembles to the folk legends of the past (e.g. Ian Anderson). Contrary to the opening track, this one ranges between slow and modern-folk-style medium tempos but does not lack in inspiration - the acoustic solos and the bass tunes prove that. Life without Pain has been recorded for the film 'Air' and brings along a 70's sound. This is one of the few ballads I have personally experienced from his works which evolves to a very 'touchy', emotionally sung effort with simple but attractive melodies; strangely, one of the best ballads I have recently listened to which is summarised as "for what life is a life without pain".

The title track from 'Two Little Awakenings" is the epic (~18 minutes long) that sums up this compilation. The track starts off in the same manner that the previous ended e.g. very smoothly and gradually builds up from the 4th minute onwards. However, the track for at least half its duration is dominated by modern, 'sweet' American melodies that left me quite indifferent. The variety of instruments is absent during the first 10 minutes or so while the composition does not really evolve promptly. The relatively weak lyrics and the unjustified duration of the track make this the least interesting musical piece here.

Despite this latter unfortunate (in my opinion) inclusion, the overall compilation is more than pleasant and has some really inspired moments. I would not hesitate to recommend this to all friends of modern folk and fans of acoustic guitar. Along with the rest of his compilations, this sampler is available for free download from the artist's website.

This almost excellent addition to my collection definitely has a place in my playlist and is well worth 3 ½ stars.