This review is written by Dai Woosnam, daigress@hotmail.com, 6/05
Marcel Proust once bit in to a madeleine cake, and he got more
than his subconscious had bargained for. It served as an Instant Time
Machine, speeding him back down the years to childhood. Now, as the
cake was to Proust, so John Padovano has proved to me. Today, listening
to this album three times through, I confess to feeling slightly
drugged. Like some sort of "out of body experience": I have been
whisked back to the late Sixties and early Seventies. I haven't been
smoking any weed, but I promise you that the overall effect is the
same. Pleasant and SO "spaced-out" man! Indeed if an album could give
off a smell, it would not be "coffee" (though he bills himself as a
"coffeehouse performer"), but Grade A marijuana.
His work was new to me, but by the look of things, this is his fourth
album. He works out of Fair Haven, New Jersey. I sat back to listen.
And the initial reaction is good. He has a tuneful voice, plays decent
if non-flashy acoustic guitar, and blows a bluesy
harmonica. On some tracks he has a percussion backing. But that is it.
No studio gimmicks. I tried to get a handle on it. He was reminiscent
of SOMEONE, but I could not think just WHO exactly.
At first I thought of another guy from New Jersey, Bruce Springsteen.
But although there were touches of "the Boss", the real link was
elsewhere. I quickly moved from Loudon Wainwright lll, to the early
Dylan (both his guitar and harmonica were too good to be Mr.
Zimmerman's), and then I hit upon it. Of COURSE: I was back in the days
of Flower Power: back in my smoky bedsit listening to The Incredible
String Band! Indeed his voice is a curious amalgam of Robin
Williamson's and Mike Heron's, and the song lyrics have that same
ability to run the gamut when it comes to subject matter. Alas he does
not quite have their gift for melody, and so several of his songs have
a "samey" feel.
He gives us an astonishing 29 tracks and a total of 70 minutes playing
time. I would be failing in my duty as a reviewer if I did not say that
I would personally settle for 50 minutes and some stronger material.
But that said, it is just the album to meditate to, and to let wash
over you.
Dai Woosnam
Grimsby, England.
daigress@hotmail.com
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