Thursday, October 1, 2009

Super Quick Hitters:: Andy Shauf

I am completely swamped at work, trying to finish up projects before I leave the company but I've had a record on repeat all day today that you should really check out. Andy Shauf is a young - like 21 years old kind of young - Regina song writer that has taken years of bedroom demos and crafted a pretty solid debut.

Darker Days samples from some classic influences (Paul Simon and Elliott Smith for example), but Shauf manages to find and maintain his own voice throughout the record. There are moments of tenderness - whether it is a simple harmony or a banjo (You Remind Me) - but also moments of excitement when he jumps on the electric (Gone) or spikes the sound with nice hand claps, but when push comes to shove, Shauf writes nice melodies and tells stories you just want to hear.

He keeps it simple and clean, but knows enough to throw the listener a change-up so you can't sit on the pitch and shows a maturity you wouldn't expect from a bedroom artist that was embarrassed about his songs. Really, I feel the same way about Shauf's songs as I do about Brett Dennen or Josh Rouse's tracks, which is to say I'm a huge fan.