New Music is Everywhere : Darin Bennett and Paul Mark & the Van Dorens

Greetings esteemed fans of TMB -

The new music just keeps coming in for different angles which, thankfully, is great. Because it is those unexpected turns that often yield the most sinceren, if not best, surprises.

While I have a MySpace blog, I am not a huge fan of MySpace but it is a great place to check out the new music scene. A number of artists send "friend invites" which I am sure that others may accept as reflex while I in my unlearned arrogance prefer to investigate a little more deeply than "that picture is hott" criteria. I ask myself particular questions like "Do I like the music?" or "Do I like this person?" or probably my most important criteria, "Would I want to have coffee with this person or persons?" Call me a throwback, a dinosaur, and hopeless luddite, but I do have my standards. So when artists send me an invite, well, I give their tracks a sound hearing. When I heard Darin Bennett MySpace tracks after receiving his invite, I was interested. I love the fresh modern sound he brings to his slide guitar work. It is a fusion of modern Blues styles which I have grown to truly appreciate and seek out for the acoustical part of my show. Darin isn't just copying the Masters of the Delta Blues but extending and perhaps demonstrating what they would do if these forebearers of the Blues found themselves in our modern times. I have recently acquired a copy of Bennett latest CD, "20 Scarlet Monkeys". My difficulty deciding which two tracks to play first. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

My second surprise was found in the "inbox" at WWPV. WWPV gets tons of new music CDs and promos. I mean TONS. Most of it is Indie Rock and a few other genres. Whatever Blues or Roots music that gets sent well...if you can't say anything good... When I saw a CD titled "Trick Fiction" by Paul Mark & the Van Dorens, I thought it was another self-produced homebrewed CD from a local high school AV club. I was so completely and utterly wrong. The is Blues/Roots at its best, eleven original songs from Paul Mark and his NYC-based Blues band. The first track, "Fritos, BBQ, & Scotch" is even better sounding than its title. Each track is wonderfully executed with variety and style to keep boredom and repetition stranded at the airport. Paul Mark brings honest, gut-driven vocals to his original tunes and the Van Dorens stand behind him as solid as proverbial diamonds with a cutting edge to boot.

I am looking forward to play these new tracks and hope you like them as much as I do.

Cheers,

OneChord.