Description
Downstream, sub-titled A WeatherVane Compilation, is a multi-artist compilation featuring various American singer-songwriters, independently released on WeatherVane Music in 1998. It was August 1998 Pick of the Month at The Phantom Tollbooth.
If you want to know where all the good underground acoustic music is…here you go. WeatherVane Music is a small, humble label dedicated to digging up the best folk, folk-rock, pop, country, and alternative artists to ever turn down their amps and unplug their guitars. I’m not usually a fan of such mellow fare, but the songs on this compilation are well-crafted enough to catch my attention. These artists enliven their picking and strumming with occasional electric reverb in the background, a varied and creative array of percussion, and bits of keyboard, strings, organs, and so on. And they aren’t run-of-the-mill, up-and-coming, still-working-on-the-quality-of-their-music, hoping-to-make-it-big-someday types of artists, which is the typical conception of “underground” or “independent.” Rather, they’re experienced music-makers with well-established fan bases, who send out their songs this way because of the freedom and integrity they can enjoy with no record label breathing influence down their necks. This is grassroots.
That’s not to say they don’t hunt down success, though. Most of these guys tour often, sharing their tunes with whoever will listen, and the 10-page sleeve lays out more than enough connections to bigger names…past albums produced by Ric Hordinski (Over the Rhine) and Mark Heard, band members from Vigilantes of Love and Better Than Ezra, studio help from people who’ve worked with the Indigo Girls, Smashing Pumpkins, and Hole, background vocals by Victoria Williams…you get the picture. The production is some of the best out there as well. You can feel the strings vibrate against the fretboards, the bass and drums sending slight tremors through your coffee, the voices exhaling right into your ear (if you’ve got a good stereo, of course).
So, who’s on the compilation? Well, there are nine artists featured, each with two tracks. One is taken from an already-released album and the other is an exclusive just for Downstream. John Austin is probably the most well-known, with his Tom Petty-catchiness meets Vigilantes of Love-lyrical depth (similar voice to Mallonee also). He’s the rocker on the album. Robert Deeble put out an album in the Christian market a few years back under the moniker Days Like These; his eerie, cello and bass-drenched coffee-house sound is represented by «Rock A Bye» from that album plus a preview track from his upcoming release on Jackson Rubio. I’m definitely picking up Harrod & Funck’s latest album after being enthralled by the entrancing, soothing vocals and trailing psychedelic ending of «Your Voice at Tidewater». Loni Rose, Erin Echo, and Claire Holley will satisfy the female singer-songwriter fans, each with a distinctive style and voice. Loni’s my favorite, even though some of her lyrics lack depth (She’s looking for a «Real Man».). She’s the only one who seduces me with her unique, sultry-yet-childlike croonings from the new school of Jewel/Alanis vocals. Spacefighter is the lone “band” here, playing punchy, strum-driven alterna-pop songs with big smiles. Rounding out the nine are California-country/folk balladeers Hughes & Wagner and the CCM-sounding Christopher Williams.
All of these artists are believers, but when it comes to their songs they’re story-tellers and poets, not evangelists. This is about good music, and the lives that infuse it with meaning. There are no trite, candy-coated Christian themes, just songs about life. And like life, you can spend a long time figuring the lyrics out, or you can get them right away.
The album cover has a picture of a rotund little man with a strange, sad face sitting on the bank of a stream, dipping an acoustic guitar into the water, almost like he’s filling it up or washing it clean. The beautiful earth – grained painting fits perfectly with the subtle – spiritual themes I take to be behind the compilation – simple musicians drinking the Source of life; instruments and talents cleansed by the flow; partaking of the living water not at the crowded and busy river but at a babbling brook in the quiet woods…downstream.
I usually fall asleep to acoustic music, but this kept me awake the whole way through and inspired me to search out quite a few albums by some of the artists here. You may or may not be able to appreciate all of the songs on Downstream, but it will definitely open up your ears to some of the best acoustic music in the underground or anywhere. [Josh Spencer, The Phantom Tollbooth, 1998]
CD tracklist:
01. Hughes & Wagner – Lady Of Cicero – 3:09
02. John Austin – Heaven Is Inside – 4:26
03. Harrod & Funck – Your Voice At Tidewater – 5:08
04. Loni Rose – Real Man – 3:21
05. Christopher Williams (feat. Tom Prasada-Rao) – These Days – 4:09
06. Claire Holley – Mary Visits Elizabeth – 2:48
07. Robert Deeble (feat. Victoria Williams) – Rock A Bye – 4:54
08. Erin Echo – Using Moonlight – 4:10
09. Spacefighter – Superhero Me – 2:00
10. Hughes & Wagner – Listen To The Rain (Unreleased) – 2:57
11. Loni Rose – Pull My Wagon (Unreleased) – 3:30
12. Harrod & Funck – Come Clean (Home Recording) – 3:42
13. John Austin – Lazy Bones (Unreleased) – 4:00
14. Robert Deeble – Two Statues – 3:44
15. Christopher Williams – Everytime I Say Goodbye (Recorded Live At WERS Radio in Boston) – 4:41
16. Spacefighter – Tell Your Soul – 1:47
17. Erin Echo – Ride (Unreleased) – 4:56
18. Claire Holley – Sleep, Sleep – 3:02
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