Cedarwell – Smoky Mountain Bear
self-released 2008
Listen while reading:
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Some people got a feeling for imagining cool album names and Smoky Mountain Bear is definitively one cool name. Also the cover artwork and the packaging of the CD are very nice and fancy. But let’s get to the real deal.
Cedarwell from Sheboygan, Wisconsin, has had several releases before Smoky Mountain Bear. Mostly EPs and music released under different synonyms. You can check this page to get a good overview. But what will await you here? Well…it’s not just acoustic folk. Cedarwell plays dark twisted acoustic pop songs as they call it. And I have to agree on this. The tracks got pop appeal at some points, but overall I think they are still folk songs, because they got this special feeling in them. It’s hard to couch it but as you listen to songs like The Smoky Mountains or Lucy you know what I mean.
Erik Neave
You can find many different instruments, such as acoustic guitar, e-guitar, drums (even a bongo drum if I’m not mistaken), an accordion (and is there really a trumpet?) and some additional electronic sounds. But they don’t overuse them or any other instrument and so they create a stunning album full of musical refinement und sensitiveness.
Knowing the fact that this album was recorded in a cabin in the Smoky Mountains adds some extra flavour to the songs and you will love them even more. Overall this is a record you must not miss. And here are some news about the band: Erik Neave from Cedarwell told me, that they start recording their new album this month and that it will be available in February 2010. He also said that it will be different – I’m very excited and I hope so are you.
Visit their homepage for lots of free music, donate some money or buy their records via cdbaby.com. Don’t miss to check them out on MySpace, too.
[...] one of my first posts here on CFM I wrote about the 2008 release Smoky Mountain Bear by Cedarwell and it was one of the albums that got me started with the whole blogging thing. And [...]