REVIEW: The Fountains, Welcome, (Plow)
- Joe Silva
I'll 'fess up to a certain amount of lost objectivity here before I start. I was having a reasonably good day to beginwith when Jeff Andrews, fifty percent of the Atlanta-based Fountains, serves me and my friend a duo of splendid espressos at the cafe he works at. He mentions that the CD on the counter is something he and his brother recorded sometime in mid-May, and when I ask him what the music is like, his answer comes quick. "It's honest." Hmmm...
Until you remember that Jeff and his brother Andrew have the unfair advantage of sharing a lot of the same DNA, Welcome nets your interest with some fairly striking and natural harmony. This set of songs (Jeff says they have two albums worth of more material) are a combination of soft-spoken guitar pieces, well trimmed with blues harp and subtle, heartfelt sentiment. The folky melodies are gentle and starkly laid out with no fear that the quick and slim production (all twelve songs were recorded in one five hour stint...).
Songs like "Just Around the Bend" and "True North" have a near-Eagles tint to them, but only in that Henley and Frey knew that they had a way of approaching sweet, almost country poses without getting too hokey. Jeff told me that this extended duet will probably turn into an electric four piece thing soon, and it'll be a point of curiosity to see how the shift in setup works over their already promising set of attributes.
Their 12 song CD can be purchased for $12 from Plow Records, 1981 Walker Ave., College Park, GA 30337
