Friday, January 11, 2008

Dave Patten- Fly Away Review

Artist: Dave Patten
Title: Fly Away
Website: http://www.davepatten.com
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/davepatten 
CDBaby: http://cdbaby.com/cd/davepatten2
Style: Acoustic Rock
Label: Clark Records
Rating: 8.9 out of 10
By C.W. Ross
 
Fly Away is the follow up to Dave Patten's debut release, Too Close, Too Far. On this release Patten has surrounded himself with longtime friends and musicians, Josh Druhan (electric guitar), Chris Baglivo (bass), Brian Boyle (piano) and session drummer John Whitely.
 
The Havertown, Pennsylvania based group list John Legend, Ben Folds Five, Pink Floyd Led Zeppelin Neil Young, and Coldplay as a few of their musical influences.
 
For the most part the 12 songs found on this release have a soft rock sound with the guitar and piano parts getting their fair share of time at the song's forefront. It's Patten's vocals though that drives the songs home.
 
When I first heard the vocals found on Fly Away I thought that Dave Patten was a little bit older maybe in his late 30's-early 40's because of the little bit of grizzle that his voice has that often comes with a few years on the road. I was surprised to find out that Patten is only in his 20's.
 
Lyrically the songs deal a lot with relationships and dealing with beak ups. Track10, "Taken" a piano ballad is a touching song that deals with death and seeing someone again in Heaven.  Patten's vocals are dripping with pure emotion in the song.
 
When asked about where he gets his inspiration for his songs Patten said, "My emotions drive my song writing. When I'm really enveloped in a particular mood or feeling, I like to sit down at the piano and just bang out chords. I literally slam my hands down on the keys. After awhile something always comes together and I almost always have some idea how to get started on the lyrics..."
 
If you're looking for a nice mid-tempo rock release then Dave Patten's Fly Away will more-then-met your needs. I really liked what I heard on Fly Away and expect to be hearing a lot more from Dave Patten and friends in the future.
 

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