reviews

Zee Blue - My Weird Brad Review

Welcome to Discovery Park

In my mailbox today. I found my copy of Brad's new CD Welcome to Discovery Park which I am now listening to for the second time. Once wasn't enough. Twice isn't either--I can feel now that this is one of those albums which will whisper to me on a frequent basis: "Come play me." It's great.

Imagine sitting on an old, sturdy porch swing at the close of a lazy summer day, the sun slowly sinking into the horizon. You're sitting out there with some good old friends, maybe a cousin or two, talking in soft voices about insubstantial pleasantries and sweet memories, while sipping some homemade lemonade from a glass jug. Someone's got a guitar and is sitting in the corner of the porch slowly strumming. Life isn't perfect, but it's wonderful enough to make it worthwhile, you feel. That feeling is what this album sounds like.

It rocks out in parts, but it's pretty mellow overall--funky folky poppy guitar rock is what it is: smooth like fine bourbon with the same quality of heart warming. Shawn Smith has a distinctive voice, like Joe Cocker's hip kid cousin all grown up. His piano playing is dead on, blending in perfectly with the solid rhythm section (Jeremy Toback, Regan Hagar and special guest percussionist Elizabeth Pupo-Walker, of Tuatara, et al) and the subtle melodics of Stoney Gossard's gentle guitar work.

There is a strong sense of refinement to ...Discovery Park that shows the care taken with the recording and production but it's never merely glossy. The songs have a patina to them, softly worn like a handrail worn to smooth perfection by the experience of thousands of hands, both reliable and beautiful at once.

--Zee Blue 8/12/02