Album Reviews

Dan Dyer sings mournfully,  earnestly and soulfully on these two direct to disc recordings produced at Chad Kassem's Blue Heaven Studios in Salina Kansas. He also plays keyboards and guitar and is accompanied by Michael Hale on drums and backup  vocals  and Mark Williams on bass and cello. 

Based in Austin, Texas, the 40 year old Dyer has an expressive and wide-ranging voice that can soar, sear and cut through you on occasion. When you hear this, remember he's singing knowing that one false move and he's ruined the whole lacquer, yet he never seems to hold back. The opener, "Prisoner of Fear" will remind you of  someone as he reaches the fevered pitch climax and that person would be Stevie Wonder. He channels Wonder's high octave yelps on "I Was Made to Love Her" (I think). 

It's a slow, sad number followed by "Howling Wind," another slow sad song where, when he backs off the intensity, you might hear Jeff Buckley peeking through. The two tracks take up side one and they will leave you mesmerized by Dyer's emotional intensity and the piercing purity of his voice, not to mention the transparency of the recording that doesn't exhibit much lateral separation, behind which are blacker backgrounds than you'll hear on taped programs, or digital ones for that matter. The sibilants might give your cartridge trouble, however. Even on the best trackers I have here, there's some slight breakup. 

Side two begins where side one's mournfulness left off and that's when I began to have trouble. You may not, depending upon your tolerance and capacity for unrelenting sensitivity. On "Come Home" Dyer demonstrates his upper octave prowess and the purity of his falsetto. The vocalizing continues to be impressive but the emotional sameness of the material starts to wear thin. 

"Come Home Part 2" ups the tempo and adds some much needed drama and rhythmic drive,  but the feel remains the same. The side ends with "Reach Out," yet another painful dirge that has elements of Van Morrison and Otis Redding. Dyer reaches new levels of intensity with his pain and yearning for redemption, but at this point I found myself saying "Lighten up, dude." 

The second volume opens with a "Love Chain" about to pull poor Dan into "misery"  and he can't swim. "Truly" actually begins to rock, but Dyer ends up coming across more as a yelper who delivers an indecisive jab and then backs off instead of sustaining and building upon what he's produced.

So even though his intensity grows throughout "Truly," since he's always retreating and starting from ground zero he doesn't gain ground, stake out territory and build emotional momentum. He just yells with greater skilled force and it comes across more as seeking attention from the same starting point instead of moving the listener to a new place. I think he's got Paul Rodgers' pipes but not his balls. 

Volume 2 also includes an absolutely stellar cover of Mac "Dr. John" Rebennack's "I Walk of Guilded Splinters" (you were expecting something not involving pain?) but the unidimensional nature of Dyer's emotional output and his inability to sustain and build ultimately left me unmoved. In fact, at times the performance seemed to descend into shtick because these strong gestures were so short lived. 

The recording quality is spectacularly natural, dynamic and transparent. I think you should hear Volume 2 both because there's some good music on it and because of the sound. Tell me I'm wrong in my assessment of what Mr. Dyer is doing, but frankly, I think I've offered him some good advice.