Calling Webley a singer songwriter just doesn’t do him justice. He’s a one man show where he sings, plays accordion, a plastic bottle full of coins, stomps his feat, and sometimes picks up and acoustic guitar. He tells great stories, sometimes absurd, he loves vegetables, and all of it is somehow fun while being extremely dark. Think Tom Waits, Duckmandu, or Mark Growden but with a better mastery of words. Webley puts on amazing live shows but this CDs is much more toned down and more orchestrated. The lyrics are still there along with his rusty voice. The CD has somewhat of a band that includes percussion, not always played on a kit, violin, viola, cello, sax, clarinet, trombone, and tuba. Which adds up to chamber pop of sorts, but it’s much more roots-y (and acoustic) with vague eastern European sounds (#4).
**1. Slow, sad, piano, and strings.
2. A follow-up of sorts to his classic, “Music that Tears Itself Apart”. Catchy, hopeful, more strings.
3. Slow piano and voice song that you might hear in a bar with a house piano crooner. Some strings towards the end.
**4. A song more like his past releases. Faster, acoustic guitar, rougher voice, and a loud chorus. Slight Eastern European influence.
5. Jazzy, brushes on the drums, prominent bass line, lower clean voice. Like Tom Waits.
**6. Another track with that vague Eastern European sounds. The trombone and clarinet all show up, including what sounds like a clarinet solo?? “I am not your lover; I’m just the map you used to find her.”
7. Vocals with a bit of reverb or echo, percussion that doesn’t sound like a drum kit, noisier, dark strings, finger picked guitar, and busy.
8. Quiet piano beginning and when the track picks up its pace it’s surprisingly pretty much the tune to “When the Saints Come Marching”. There is a fun New Orleans or marching band part in the middle which heads into fiddle playing. What a unique mix of sounds.
**9. Slow and sad. Mostly piano and voice, with a chorus of “we rowed the boat to shore hallelujah”. Damn this is moving. Song gets very quiet in the middle. When the song builds back up, there are male and female backing vocals singing the chorus.
10. Another very quiet beginning. The track is long and wanders into a few different sounds. Some jazzy brass, some piano, to a chamber sound.
AMAZING!!!!! -mph