Spectreview: Don Piano – Don Piano EP

-ELECTRIC INDIGO-

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“Blue skies chasing down a sunrise
Knowing it may never come
But one day at a time”

Don Piano’s twilit self-titled EP is transportive, but not just in the way music can cut the sharpness off of your general surroundings. It’s sense of place is incredibly vivid: we’re always right there with him, in the passenger seat of his musty, unkept truck (“Road”); walking an evenly anxious pace down some grey neighborhood street (“Slow Down”); finally basking in the embattling warmth of a makeshift campfire (“The End”). Part of that sense of place comes from Sam Peterson’s gentle, twangy baritone; it’s a voice full of character that rarely relinquishes your attention, especially when it’s coupled with tactful, specific lyrics (note how he pronounces “grain of sand”). But there’s also a breadth of styles covered here, all perfect fits for that voice. Harmonica-laden, dust-wrecked country leads to strummed acoustic folk, which then leads to “Slow Down’s” small unexpected bout of experimental electronics and “Follow Me’s” lushly picked arpeggios, the equivalent of Songs: Ohia’s Did It Rain crossed with Sun Kil Moon’s Admiral Fell Promises. Don Piano does a ton with careful choices, and the only potential complaint could be its brevity; there’s enough going on here that one could imagine a whole LP full of similarly engrossing twists and turns. It’s enough that Peterson’s able to bring us into such a vivid, touching environment, if only for a short while.

Recommended for even shortening days.