Large numbers of us these days are out there reconstructing our mundane lives, recasting ourselves as writers, singers, musicians, poets, actors, graphic artists or what you will. We have the technology now and for less than the price of a skiing holiday we can issue high quality products through professional looking channels.
I do writing. You might do comic strips. But we're both Joe Soap, working nine to five, despite knowng that we have so much more inside us yet. Our creative identity was suppressed in the interests of earning a living, but modern production and distribution methods no longer restrict supply with the tedious years of tutelage, poverty and apprenticeship that were once an artist's lot. Anyone can make a CD or write a review. This we all know.
But how does the output look, far from home and in the company of busy strangers? How is it when the artist isn’t someone from down the road, who knows your brother, or who once played in a band with your son? To be honest, not much of it stands up or stands out. Ditto with reviews.
I can’t fault Los Angeles' PETE KRONOWITT's homespun countrified voice (with a lovely hint of Roy Orbison about it) or his simple and unobtrusive acoustic guitar style. His songs work without needing to be pushed and the arrangements (assised by Pete Snell) do enough to give each tune a distinctive profile. It’s all rather pleasant.
"Puzzle Piece" is a good-hearted song with a laid back feel and a warm sentiment. "Troubadour" has some ambitious and quite affecting orchestration (including an un-credited trumpet/flugelhorn). "Fraternity Whore" is a harsh confessional piece that, for all its emotional honesty, is unpleasantly misogynist. The "That's not nice", spoken at the end doesn’t really cover it.
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But if Pete lived down the road from me, here in West Yorkshire, I would see him in the company of a dozen good songwriters who also do a good show (maybe better), but who struggle to get paid. One of them, or Pete Kronowitt, might break through to something wider, but the key to that development is, generally speaking, not in the music itself. Staying well inside the frameworks of what we already know, musically speaking, the breakthrough is unlikely. There are too many classic exponents already in the CD racks with hundreds of fine song collections that we still haven’t bought.
Music like Pete's will be bought by friends, family and people who hear him play in a venue on a good night out. They will all say (as we do) "This guy is great, he should have a wider audience". But, if we were honest, we (and they) would notice that we don't often choose to put that CD on, preferring the Ryan Adams, the Neil Diamond, the Roy Orbison, Tom Petty or the Jimmy Webb.
www.petekronowitt.com
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