Here are eleven characterless country ballads sung in a slightly apologetic voice by a Canadian amateur musician who has taken his hobby right through to the CD with barcode stage.
All musicians are amateur in one sense. All are driven by love of the medium, most go unpaid, and most would earn more in catering. But the likes of PETER MANDIC have taken up the technology of music production in a persistent way and the likes of me end up writing reviews that carry the artifice through to completion. Musician and writer are bound together in a mutual pretence – both acting out shadowy versions of the industrial raree show that once was the Popular Music Business.
Well, I can’t write and Peter can’t sing. Computers bring us closer to you, and talented friends who can write code, play pedal steel, proof read, EQ backing tracks (sometimes for money) and do CD mastering help with the masquerade. You are not fooled.
|
Track 7, "You and Me", has a long and well played violin tune (Lisa MacIsaac violin) that stands out as music that I would like to hear again. Otherwise Peter's voice and mouth-down-at-the-corners tunes do not appeal at all. His songs have some independent life. But let’s face it, we all know three people who can write a good song faster than it would take to transcribe a second hand one. Times are tough.
www.petermandic.com
|
