Powerful Alt/Indie/Prog Rock - Melodic Vocals and Acoustically Driven.

9 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Acoustic, ROCK: Progressive Rock



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BRAND NEW ALBUM!!! SUMMER 2007!!!!!!!
HERE'S THE FIRST REVIEW:::::::::

Former F-M musician shines on second CD
By Dave Roepke droepke@forumcomm.com
Valley R&R - 05/15/2007

The cover of Neal Petersonâs new CD is a pistol with a guitar neck for a barrel.

Considering his political leanings -- the Minot, N.D., native helped organize war protests as a student at Minnesota University Moorhead and on his Web site asks fans not to buy his first solo album from Wal-Martâs online music store -- the imagery makes sense: guitar as revolutionary weapon.

The acoustic alt-rock guitarist is releasing the new disc, âRiot in Luxury,â on Friday at The Aquarium, where heâll open a show headlined by old-timey rockers Thunder in the Valley from Minneapolis.

Despite the visual nod to upheaval, Petersonâs follow-up to 2003âs âSongs for the Whiskey Conventionâ comes off as a reluctant Dear John letter to youth, not a call to arms.

Itâs a self-aware send-off for wellearned hangovers and harping about hegemony.

The penultimate track, âI Am the Ghost of My Former Self,â sums it up pretty well: âWe believed that money was just a thing/We believed that truth would set us free/ We believed that war was just a fad/It makes me sad.â

Relying more on layered licks than linear songcrafting, Peterson builds to cathartic sing-along crescendos and chorusrepeating fade-outs with a mix of staccato strumming and bells and whistles like hand claps, natural sounds and, well, bells.

âThe Bride Stripped Bare,â is the discâs most engaging offering. It finds Peterson, who now lives in Duluth, Minn., ruminating on love lost and lust suppressed, gripping to a catchy but obtuse lyric for repetition (âSo pathetic/Iâll forget it/Making love on social creditâ) like Modest Mouseâs Isaac Brock so often does.

Itâs easy to imagine âSea Changeâ sounding like this if Neil Young had never existed and Beck hired Brock to produce.