Susan Frances
09/29/08, 09:17 PM
Sean Wagner -Long Lost Photograph EP
Record Label: Unsigned
Release Date: May 3, 2008
What is so attractive about the folk pop/roots rock tunage of Sean Wagner’s latest EP, Long Lost Photograph is that you don’t have to like folk or roots music in order to like this record. Wagner has a catchy tapping in his rhythms with a resemblance to Elvis Costello, and melodic wanderings that vacillate between folksy gloved punches liken to Ireland’s Luka Bloom and a smooth country folk roaming relatable to Australia’s Marisa Yeaman. Whether Wagner is playing a willowy ballad or a pulsating uptempo, he knows how to keep the crowd involved in his music with well rigged beats and pleasing melodic columns. Most of the time, it does not even feel like you are listening to music that has a tendency to be boring, but Wagner never falters.
The songs are ripe for a wide range of settings from listening to the tunes on your car stereo to humming along to them in while relaxing in a coffee shop, or laying out on the lawn in a park‘s courtyard. Wagner’s songs put the listener at ease even as he is unearthing feelings that are locked up inside. The upbeat grooves of “Virginia” and “I Can’t Tell You” are covered in roots rock vestiges, and the soft folk musings of “Hey Lover,” “Christina,” and “This Side of the Moon” have lounging country-Americana color schemes that create inseams of slinky strokes and leisurely bobbing strolls.
Sean Wagner’s songs may have traditional roots rock idioms and folk fringed wanderings, but he makes these relatively sedate genres have a certain punch that wakes up the listener’s senses. Though it’s a record that only has 5 tracks on it, it is still worth checking out. The Dave Matthews Band moved folk music ahead in the ‘90s and Wagner seems to want the reins in the 2000’s.
Elvis Costello, Dave Matthews Band, Marisa Yeaman, Luka Bloom
www.myspace.com/seanwagner (http://www.myspace.com/seanwagner)
Record Label: Unsigned
Release Date: May 3, 2008
What is so attractive about the folk pop/roots rock tunage of Sean Wagner’s latest EP, Long Lost Photograph is that you don’t have to like folk or roots music in order to like this record. Wagner has a catchy tapping in his rhythms with a resemblance to Elvis Costello, and melodic wanderings that vacillate between folksy gloved punches liken to Ireland’s Luka Bloom and a smooth country folk roaming relatable to Australia’s Marisa Yeaman. Whether Wagner is playing a willowy ballad or a pulsating uptempo, he knows how to keep the crowd involved in his music with well rigged beats and pleasing melodic columns. Most of the time, it does not even feel like you are listening to music that has a tendency to be boring, but Wagner never falters.
The songs are ripe for a wide range of settings from listening to the tunes on your car stereo to humming along to them in while relaxing in a coffee shop, or laying out on the lawn in a park‘s courtyard. Wagner’s songs put the listener at ease even as he is unearthing feelings that are locked up inside. The upbeat grooves of “Virginia” and “I Can’t Tell You” are covered in roots rock vestiges, and the soft folk musings of “Hey Lover,” “Christina,” and “This Side of the Moon” have lounging country-Americana color schemes that create inseams of slinky strokes and leisurely bobbing strolls.
Sean Wagner’s songs may have traditional roots rock idioms and folk fringed wanderings, but he makes these relatively sedate genres have a certain punch that wakes up the listener’s senses. Though it’s a record that only has 5 tracks on it, it is still worth checking out. The Dave Matthews Band moved folk music ahead in the ‘90s and Wagner seems to want the reins in the 2000’s.
Elvis Costello, Dave Matthews Band, Marisa Yeaman, Luka Bloom
www.myspace.com/seanwagner (http://www.myspace.com/seanwagner)