A funny thing happened when I put the new CD "Shelving Rock" on my CD player one morning last week - everybody in my family stopped to listen.
That may not sound like much, but you have to consider what mornings are like in our house - a helter skelter jumble of barked commands from my wife and me and seemingly unrelated actions by our two kids, culminating in a mad whoosh out the door.
But when I put "Shelving Rock" on, they all paused, stopped and listened. My 4-year-ol began swinging her hips in time to the rhythm, my wife (normally an oasis of focus in our otherwise chaotic world) commented that she liked what she heard, and even my 9-year-old, the pop princess, for whom anything written before 2006 is old-school dreck, pulled the ear buds out of ear, listened and said "This is good."
I think that speaks volumes about this new CD from T. Breeze Verdant and Stephen Iachetta. There is something eminently listenable about "Shelving Rock." True, it's probably not going to win any Grammys, but this companionable collection of 10 songs has the capacity to win people over.
In the liner notes, the musicians explain that this CD was recorded "live" in Julian McBrowne's Hidden Drive Studio, with no overdubs. I think much of the CD's appeal lies in that fact. It sounds like what it is - two friends getting together and jamming warmly and energetically. There's an organic and amiable feel to the CD - the image of two friends playing together, smiling together and trading licks, say, on a front porch, is very endearing, and this CD conjures up that image. It's perfect summertime music.
Iachetta on mandolin and violin and Verdant on guitar, vocals and stompbox, comes from different "schools." Iachetta bills himself as a "Shaker fiddler" - his sound is very old-timey. Verdant comes from a folky-rock school. Together, their separate experiences fit together like fingers around an ice cream cone.
Together they venture through a John Prine song, three traditional tunes and several Verdant originals in a style that is loose, laid back and well-intentioned. And we get to listen in!
Verdant and Iachetta will be playing together tonight (Friday) at McNeill's Brewery (as if you needed another reason to go there) and Saturday starting at 10:45 a.m. at SIT. Check 'em out.