Unabashed promotion of Alexis Harte band

[Guest GregM]

My friend has become quite a song-smith and put together a band with an original sound. He was always a very capable guitarist, and he shuns electric guitar, opting for a pickup in an acoustic guitar. He was using a multi-reedist/flute player, but dropped him for a violin/fiddler. . .both suit his style well and are represented on his latest album.

http://www.mentlmusic.com/harteCD.html

I'm not sure how best to describe his music. His influences include Cat Stevens and local singer-songwriter Ben Harper. But Alexis studied guitar during extended stays in Spain and Brazil, and he punctuates his material with flamenco-like flourishes and odd breaks you almost never hear in pop music. Very enjoyable stuff.

His lyrics are evocative and he is almost always successful in steering clear of cliches, but not always. His songs range from love songs like Sweet Tooth which melodically sounds like it could have been inspired by "Buckets of Rain" from Dylan's Blood on the Tracks--to political statements like Last Legs--about death-row inmate John Paul Penry's request for his last meal.

Alexis is very conscious of audio quality and his first CD, Junebug, actually sounds incredible (for a cd) given the equipment used for recording. Two of my very disciminating audiophile friends heard the disc on JMLab Utopias/Red Rose monoblocs/dCS Elgar and promptly bought it. The second CD, Sunlight Loping, was engineered and mixed by Matt Boudreau and mastered (HDCD) at Ken Lee Mastering (Neal Schon and other notable artists).

And if you're in the bay area, it's always an enjoyable evening to catch Alexis perform. He plays local cafes/watering holes a couple times a week on average--last night at a bistro in the East Bay which was a lot of fun. If you're looking for some new sounds and intelligent songwriting, I recommend you pick up his CD.