![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/daniel_shearin_ep.jpg\")
Ask most any musician and they\u2019ll tell you: in many ways, performing with a band is easier than playing solo. There\u2019s a safety-in-numbers characteristic to playing as part of an ensemble; not to put too fine a point on it, but it\u2019s easier to hide among a stage filled with other people, musical instruments and sound gear. There\u2019s a nakedness to performing solo.<\/p>\n
That same concept holds true when it comes to making a recording. A multilayered song arrangement \u2013 one that fills in the spaces \u2013 can be wonderfully textured, but it also provides a kind of safe space for the musicians involved. Creating a recording full of \u201cair\u201d \u2013 open sonic spaces \u2013 can present a kind of unvarnished aural portrait of the artist. It\u2019s essentially the opposite of applying Autotune to one\u2019s voice.<\/p>\n
On River Whyless multi-instrumentalist Daniel Shearin\u2019s eponymous EP, the Asheville musician chooses the more difficult path, and its rewards are many. The five-song collection explores an intriguing and often unexpected palette of sonic textures.<\/p>\n
\u201cDotted Lines\u201d opens the EP with a wash of sound that might be synthesizer and voice. It also might be a harmonium and other Indian instrumentation. Perhaps it\u2019s all of the above. It\u2019s initially difficult to tell; that fact underscores the point that it\u2019s often now what tools a musician uses that matters, but how they are applied to the task at hand. The hypnotic, nearly static introduction to the song wraps itself around the listener. Once the song-proper opens up, it reveals a voice-and-guitar arrangement. But Shearin leaves wide spaces in the arrangement; the result is crystalline, fragile and emotionally enveloping. His rich voice soars above the gently picked guitar. The droning sounds of the introduction slip in almost perceptibly under the primary sounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cLiving Proof\u201d is more straightforward in its approach. Shearin\u2019s vocals are treated with less of the cavernous echo that characterized the opening track, and the guitar is more insistent. As the song develops, Shearin adds more elements, but interestingly, they\u2019re essentially more of the same: more acoustic guitars, more vocal harmonies. The effect is to heighten the emphasis of those instruments without distracting from them. Toward the song\u2019s end, another instrument \u2013 possibly a Japanese instrument, maybe something from the Appalachian musical tradition \u2013 plays a repeated figure.<\/p>\n
\u201cBlue Ridge Range\u201d builds upon the established approach: a mix of electronic and acoustic instruments, subtly applied as a backdrop that showcases Shearin\u2019s breathy, unhurried voice. Bits of percussion and white noise are perceptible; they exist seemingly as near-subliminal elements, designed to color the sound without intruding upon it. Shearing makes interesting use of changes in volume; the instrumental accompanies seems to swell with emotion.<\/p>\n
Just when one thinks they\u2019ve got Shearin\u2019s EP figured out, \u201cTake Me Somewhere\u201d changes the rules. A heavy drumbeat forms the foundation of a shimmering arrangement complete with sheets of keyboard sounds; Shearin\u2019s melody sounds feels like a more pop-leaning rethink of Fleet Foxes. A mid-song break applies a more subdued character; all of the song\u2019s components add up to the EP\u2019s strongest track.<\/p>\n
The EP concludes with\u201dBuckets of Rain,\u201d a pretty, homespun tune that sounds like a playful folk-pop ditty from years past. All of the sonic elements peppered throughout the record have been stripped away, once again bravely leaving only a man, his voice and his guitar. And that\u2019s enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ask most any musician and they\u2019ll tell you: in many ways, performing with a band is easier than playing solo. There\u2019s a safety-in-numbers characteristic to playing as part of an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16472,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,49,51,65],"tags":[237,3791,2859],"class_list":["post-16471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-folk","category-new-release","category-pop","category-review","tag-asheville","tag-daniel-shearin","tag-river-whyless","cat-30-id","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16471"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16473,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16471\/revisions\/16473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}