Drew Danburry, Mother EP

reviewed by dave heaton

Drew Danburry can write a good sensitive, smart, singer/songwriter folk-pop song as easily as anyone, and there’s some good ones here on this EP titled Mother. But he’s also out there travelling the world, searching, and it comes through in his music, the way he’ll throw a bunch of kitchen-sink sounding percussion instruments into the song, in a way that beckons you to grab the nearest tin-can and join in. Or with the joyous way he jumps into the joyous first song, titled “I’m Pretty Sure This Is Someone Else’s Song, But I Couldn’t Figure Out Whose So I’m Keeping It!”. The feeling the title describes no doubt has something to do with how killer a pop hook the song has. Though the lyrics are melancholy – “I’ve been feeling so hopeless lately”, he sings – that hook is everything but, and Danburry and friends tackle the song with gusto, with banjo and pseudo doo-wop harmonies and the feeling that a party is going on. That carries through the EP, which fittingly ends with a reprise of that ecstatic opening song. There’s also heart-baring and critical thinking going on here, as befits a singer-songwriter, but Drew Danburry tackles his music with imagination and glee, making Mother a true-blue joy.

{www.drewdanburry.com}