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Blues Underground Network |
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Shawn Pittman "Edge Of The
World"
Shawn Pittman has got talent, a lot
of it, and it is that talent that shines brightly on each Album he
releases, especially his newest one, "Edge Of The World". Shawn Pittman's
journey of becoming a exceptional multi-instrumentalists started when
he was only 8, taking music lessons for Piano. From there he progressed to
Drums via sneaking into his brothers room to play his. By the age of 14 he
began playing Guitar and it was at that time that he was introduced to the
music of Lightnin' Hopkins and Muddy Waters via a close high school
friend, Braken Hale. Beyond introducing Shawn to the Blues, Braken
continued to be influential in Shawn's life by writing music for many of
his albums, including "Edge Of The
World".
Shawn Pittman's first true mentor was
Sam Myers, whom was "an American blues musician and songwriter. He
appeared as an accompanist on dozens of recordings for blues artists over
the past five decades, and fronted one of the top blues bands in the
world. He began his career as a drummer for Elmore James but was most
famous as a blues vocalist and blues harp player. Myers was in high demand
for his authentic delta blues sound." "According to Pittman, "Sam
Myers was one of the best musicians I've ever played with!" With
inspiration and guidance from Sam and other influential Artists, Shawn
released his first album in 1996. Throughout the 90's and up till 2005,
Shawn's career continued to grow, both with more Album releases and gigs
with other Artists such as Susan Tedeschi. 2005 to 2008 was a
period of quiet reflection for Shawn, as his took a break to reevaluate
himself, which seemed to work because since then he has been on fire as
far as putting out new releases, with 5 under his belt by mid 2010. Such a
flurry of activity did not go unnoticed and it was not long after that he
had signed a new record contract with Delta Groove Music. "Edge Of The
World" marks his 6th Album since 2008 and 10th
overall.
"Edge Of The World" consists of 13
Tracks, in which Shawn Pittman had either written or co-written 11 of
them. Shawn's good friend Bracken Hale gets solo credit for one Track
("This Time") and shares the writing credits on one Track, the
title Track ("Edge Of The World"), with Shawn Pittman. Lewis
Dickson, another of Shawn's good friends, is in on the credits as
co-writer with Shawn Pittman on 6 Tracks. The one Cover on this Album, is
a Chester Burnett (Howlin' Wolf) song titled "Sugar (Where'd You Get Your
Sugar
From)".
The list of musicians on "Edge Of The
World" is quite short, actually there are only 2, consisting of Shawn
Pittman whom beyond Vocals, also played Electric, Acoustic, and Slide
Guitar, as well as, Piano, Bass, and Drums. Shawn is also credited as the
Album's Engineer and Co-Producer. Jonathan Doyle, the only other musician
on this Album contributed Tenor and Baritone Saxophone on 4 of the
Tracks. Jonathan Doyle has been part of several bands including the Mighty
Blue Kings, Jimmy Sutton's Four Charms, and White Ghost
Shivers.
The idea behind "Edge Of The World"
was to keep it simple and to bring the real sound of great blues from the
50' and 60's, before music started to become to technically produced, as
Shawn Pittman says, "there was more of a Live Sound and certain Soul
that reverberated through those Records." Also "When asked to
comment about the inspiration behind his latest and most ambitious project
Pittman simply states "I'm just playing the music I want to hear!"
With "Edge Of The World", Shawn Pittman has brilliantly created a project
that perfectly fits into a 50's and 60's feel. In fact, you will be hard
pressed not to think that this Album actually came from that time period.
It is totally representative and authentic in all respects to that era of
music, especially with the center stage playing of the gritty guitar and
the use of just one mic to bring a nice little hollow feel to it all. In
fact, there are some tracks which will bring you back to memories of the
good old sock hop
days.
"Edge Of The World" will keep you on
the Edge Of Your Seat, with anticipation of each following Track. A
wonderful trip back by one awfully talented forward thinking
Artist.
"Edge Of The World" is a wonderfully
creative Album, that more then deserves my highest rating of 5*****,
and an Album that I Highly Recommend and Thoroughly
Enjoyed.
Review by John Vermilyea (Blues
Underground
Network)
Additional Info
Tracklist
1. Sugar (Where'd You Get Your Sugar
From) 4:27
2. Leanin' Load 3:10 3. Scent Of Your Benjamins 4:28 4. Almost Good 3:49 5. One Of These Days 3:44 6. Edge Of The World 3:55 7. That's The Thing 4:41 8. Maintain 3:53 9. I've Had Enough 2:59 10. This Time 3:43 11. Something's Gotta Give 4:41 12. Somebody Gonna Lose, Somebody Gonna Win 4:43 13. If I Could (Make The World Stop Turning) 3:11
Listen To Samples Here...
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