J Shogren
J Shogren
Genres: Need to Rate
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Jeff Kanzler
About J Shogren
jshogren.com myspace.com/jshogren Hard acoustic roots music from a life lived in loud proportions. American Holly is the second release from Wyoming’s favorite applied philosopher J Shogren, who made a splash overseas since his ’07 debut, Jahamericana. His adventures have taken him from days as a trapper to an endowed professor. He splits his time between Wyoming and Sweden, where he worked last year- unlikely as it sounds - as the King’s Professor. Even more riotous, he was a party to the Nobel Peace Prize as a member of the United Nations Team working on climate change. Planet, music. Shogren is getting press across a wide field: "Blending more styles than we can list here Shogren ... He’s traveled the world and the stories are plentiful in these grooves. At the end of the day though it’s Americana at its best."- Village Records. Top 20 americana cds in 2008-Rootsville (Belgium) #13 Feb 09 & #15 Jan 2009 on the EuroAmericana Chart #16 on F.A.R. Chart for Dec 2008 #41 on the Folk Music Radio Chart for Feb 2009 #150 or so on the Americana Radio charts in Jan/Feb "Like a garden full of wildflowers...there’s something undeniably endearing about Shogren’s ramshackle ramblings." Performing Songwriter, Jan 2009 "American Holly is an absolute masterpiece." Moors Magazine Jan 2009. "There are two other times I can remember when a singer’s voice prompted in me the same reaction I had when I first heard J Shogren’s. Those were when I first heard Randy Newman and Leon Redbone. I had to keep looking at the album cover to assure myself that the singer was indeed white. Shogren’s voice sounds like one of those great bluesmen from ninety years ago." Oliver di Place, Feb 2009 http://oliverdiplace.blogspot.com/2009/02/j-shogren-american-holly.html American Holly is produced by J Shogren and D Tinker; mastered by J Wilson (Richard Thompson, The Gourds, Joe Ely, Bob Mould); featuring Grammy winner Sally van Meter on resonator, fingerpikkin maniac Jalan Crossland on banjo, the dynamo Shaun Kelly on bass, and country blues chanteuse Birgit Burke on backing vocals. Lars Eriksson on Jahamerica by J Shogren An album which for me is very honest and driving, in rhythm and attitude, essentially positive. It cheers you up without being silly. I find it cool, at times brilliant, fun and funny, a combination of serious and amusing. The guitarplaying is great, with lots of variation and personal touch, and so is the working on the songs. It is a good mixture between driving rhythm and more calm songs. As with many other artists, you find the same kind of rhythm in the different songs returning, but there is nothing wrong with that, it’s only familiar and nice. Makes you wanna dance. The songs are mature, because the man who composed them is mature; he’s not a kid who, no matter how brilliant he may be, can’t get away from his immaturity. The album is cozy, perfect for a car trip or for being played over and over again, weekend after weekend, on a local pub somewhere in Wyoming. Many lines get stuck in your head (and so do the riffs). He comes some: “Dancing drinking and crying, lonesome lovesick and blue… smoking laughing and lying, to myself, the world and to you… found the keys to life my friend but I dropped them underneath my bar stool”, “oh Lord, why did you give so many so few?”, “if it's good enough for you, it's good enough for me”. At times I think the songs deserve a better recording, but they still come along great. Sometimes the whole thing reminds me – I don’t know why - of a great street band, unknown, unrecorded, but oh so great. There is something classical about this album. The material album in itself – that which you can hold in your hand – is simple and beautifully designed. It’s pleasant, but I miss the lyrics printed out. I always miss the lyrics when they are not there, it’s like as if half the songs, or the maps to the songs, are not there.
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