When we last heard from Dan Israel, he was leading his band The
\nCultivators through an entertaining set on
\nMama’s Kitchen<\/i>. And while he still is fronting that band,
\nsomething had to be possessing Israel to step out of the
\ncountry-rock shell and to record an album of modern folk with just
\nthe slightest touch of country.<\/p>\n
That album,
\nDan Who?<\/i>, is a breakthrough for the Minnesota-based
\nguitarist\/vocalist, for this disc brings back memories of possibly
\nMinnesota’s most notable export… no, not Jesse Ventura. I’m
\ntalking about Bob Dylan – and Israel often strikes a Dylan-like
\nnote (with the exception that Israel can hit the notes fine, thank
\nyou very much).<\/p>\n
While I do enjoy his work with The Cultivators, I have a
\npersonal message for Mr. Israel: you keep cranking out albums in
\nthis vein that are this good, and you’re going to be
\nsingle-handedly responsible for a rebirth of interest in folk
\nmusic… and I’ll be the first in line to shake your hand and say
\n“thanks”.<\/p>\n
What Israel has done here reminds me of Kev’n Kinney’s
\nMacdougal Blues<\/i>, his first project away from Drivin’ ‘n’
\nCryin’. Like Kinney, Israel seemed to be writing songs in a vein
\nthat just wouldn’t have fit in the vein of The Cultivators’s music.
\nFor that, we should all be thankful.<\/p>\n
Oh, sure, you’re thinking… could the music on this disc from
\nan artist I’ve never heard of really be
\nthat<\/i> good? The answer is yes, Bucky. From the opening track
\n“Last Words,” Israel strikes a nerve that makes you want to hear
\nmore… and you almost find yourself disappointed when the final
\ntrack fades out. It’s raw, it’s emotional… it’s damned good.<\/p>\n
Tracks like “Lingering Questions,” “All My Friends,” “Looking
\nOut For Me” and “Tears Of Joy” ring out with the sparse power of
\njust Israel’s vocals and his acoustic guitar. And while the subject
\nmatter occasionally drifts into the veins of sorrow and heartbreak
\n(thus the country reference), he never lets the music become
\nmaudlin, and makes sure that while the listener pays attention to
\nevery word, they leave the song with smiles on their faces.<\/p>\n
Israel just can’t do any wrong on
\nDan Who?<\/i>, except maybe not making this a double CD so people
\ncould have more tracks to rejoice in. Israel might not be a
\nhousehold name, but this CD has the power to change that. All it
\nasks is that you – whether you’re a consumer or radio programmer,
\nclub manager or label executive – give it a fair chance. Chances
\nare once you do, you’ll find you don’t want to take it out of your
\nCD player.<\/p>\n
\nDan Who?<\/i> is a masterpiece, pure and simple, painted in the
\ncolors of bare necessity. Israel has cut an album he can be proud
\nof… and I’m among the many critics hoping this disc becomes the
\nskeleton key that will open all the doors in front of this talented
\nmusician.<\/p>\n
2001 Christopher Thelen and “The Daily Vault”. All rights
\nreserved. Review or any portion may not be reproduced without
\nwritten permission. Cover art is the intellectual property of
\nPersistent \/ Hayden’s Ferry Records, and is used for informational
\npurposes only.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6552],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-36995","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-dan-israel","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36995"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36995"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}