Sounds like Hank Williams, The McGarrigle Sisters, Nick Drake, Paul Westerberg, Wilco, the Jayhawks, Buddy Holly, The Byrds, and Richard Thompson.

13 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Gentle, COUNTRY: Traditional Country



Details:
Description: With songs that feel both familiar and surprising, Mauer's debut CD, Fantasy Life (his second one, Paris Museum, has been available for months), gives us a more complete picture of his stylistic and emotional range. The four songs opening this CD feature Look Here Sister, the band Mauer helped lead in the 1990s. These four songs exhibit a wide range of styles: country, melodic punk, pop, and a lovely folk-waltz.

The remaining tracks exhibit Mauer's more delicate solo work. Here he sounds like a combination of Hank Williams, The McGarrigle Sisters, Nick Drake, Paul Westerberg, Wilco, the Jayhawks, Buddy Holly, and Richard Thompson. In a tribute to Thompson, Mauer concludes the album with a bittersweet performance of his beautiful ballad "Withered and Died."

Artist biography: Barry Mauer grew up in the vibrant Minneapolis music scene of the 1980s, lapping up the Replacements, Hüsker Dü, Soul Asylum, and the Jayhawks. In the 1990s, Mauer moved to Gainesville, Florida and formed Look Here Sister. The band became stylistically diverse, branching out into rock, punk, folk, pop, bluegrass, and rockabilly. In 2003, he recorded two albums of original music, Fantasy Life and Paris Museum. Mauer composes, and does vocal, guitar, violin, bass, and keyboard on the albums. He is accompanied by seasoned players from the Gainesville and Atlanta scenes. Mauer is now a professor in English, Film and Digital Media, and the Texts and Technology PhD program at the University of Central Florida.

Review 1: Songs as fresh as they are nostalgic, as addictive as they are simple. Lovely melodies and sincere storytelling. John Thomason, The Independent

Review 2: Expert and original instrumentation and a friendly voice. Kevin McGowin, Eclectica