I agree that it's phenomenal harp playing, but other than the concept, the tune doesn't do anything for me. I think my computer's sound lacks, or ya' had to be there. I love his playing, but I've heard tunes that moved me alot more. I really think ya' probably had to be there. It's great that people can play like that, but the tune's gotta deliver something more than technical expertise, and, again, it prob'ly did if you were there.
I've got to agree with LittleBubba. Maybe it's how the mix recorded. I've heard other stuff by Dennis that I've really liked, and this is technically very good, but it's just not my style.
Tmf714, the OP wasn't 'asking' anything. He made a post. If he'd asked a question we would have made a point to answer the question, but when you make a declarative statement as the beginning of the post there isn't much you can do except to agree or disagree and explain why. There wasn't any malice in it. In fact, we both went out of our way to say we liked other stuff by Dennis, but that this just wasn't to our tastes. It's not, but like we said, that's just a comment on our personal tastes. Your tastes can certainly be different, but I don't see how you can begrudge us ours.
I liked it. Perhaps because there's no bass,it's throwing you guys off. Does make a difference. I've tried playing without a bass player and a drummer half that good. It's not fun.
Everything can be a debate, if ya really want to. I was impressed with the creativity and risk. It isn’t always successful here and I could imagine Dennis occasionally cringing when he sees it. But I see it as case study in taste and technique.
Timeistight, part of it is the recording, I think. The instruments are kind of smooshed together, which makes the different instruments sound less clear, but there are parts where it just sounded busy to me, and the way his effects were running the low parts and the high parts didn't sound like the same instrument, which meant when he switched parts it was a little jarring.
There were a few spots where he broke into bluesier stuff which I liked more (the call and response with the vocal).
A lot of it he sounded like he was mimicking a jazz trumpet, but it was close enough that when it fell off it sort of fell into the uncanny valley where it made you really aware you were listening to someone trying to sound like a trumpet. There also wasn't really catchy melody that I could hum along with. I'm not a big fan of jazz (although I like ragtime, maybe because there is usually a good hook). The guitar and the harp were tonally too similar for me.
Like I said though, most of that is just a matter of my personal tastes. I've heard other stuff by Dennis that I really like.
Dennis is masterful with his badass mics,he almost pulled this song with a bullet.Playing through an acoustic vocal or maybe handheld 57 58 545 or something other than that metal pot buzz would have sounded sweeter.He improvises so well,maybe a mic switch would tickle his fancy.
When I heard it the first time, I just had this feeling that the parts were greater than the whole. And Dennis is probably in my top 5 of current players, including my appreciation of the way he delivers tunes. I just didn't think this one flowed well. I think I was listening with my "fan's ears", NOT my harp player's ears.
