Faron McNeal

Yeah, so, I've been in New York. That's a really big city north of Knoxville. By a ways. Sorry, but the net was $8.50 a minute there and I had some stuff to buy. Dig.

So, I get this e-mail the other day, and yeah, this e-mail has a link to a website, and yeah, the website has the name of a former student of mine from the ol' U of Tennessee - Knoxvegas. His name is Faron McNeal. He got a pretty good grade, as I remember, and he's in the Air Force ROTC, and he's Celtic. So, he's got that going for him. Which is nice.

Alright, alright we're getting their. Mr. McNeal lists his influences as, and I quote:

". . . Jack Johnson; the musical genius that is John Mayer; Maroon 5; Shawn Mullins (one of the greatest musical story tellers of all time); Dave Mathews Band; Garth Brooks; Third Eye Blind; Jason Mraz; Ryan Adams; Bryan Adams; Five for Fighting; The Eagles; Weezer; the soul full [sic] lyrics of Third Day; Train; the genuine rocking of Ben Harper; and Will Hoge. "

Hmm. Interesting mix, eh? I say, if you really want to know what yer' getting into, note in particular influence of the two Jacks, the Ben, and the Shawn. Mr. McNeal's music is early spring in Charlottesville (Virginia) music (I heard it, I think, at just the right time) - you know, when you're at a restaurant serving pasta al fresco, sitting outside under a viney trellis, preferably with Angry Brian and Computer Rob, an hour after it stopped raining, maybe drinking a nice amber beer (I'm thinking Peroni) or a really mild white wine, and you can smell the flowers and everything is green, and well, a band sets up, and you think, hmm, maybe I should leave, then you remember you don't have anything to do that night, so you order another beer. And you don't leave till they stop playing, which is too early. The song-writing is still developing, but it is entirely pleasant.

More to the brass nails. The production on the sample music is good for a young artist, though there are some weak spots. You can listen to his jonx on a number of pages. First, his homepage has a slew of such-have-yous, five quite good songs (note that with "Tangerine" there is a bit of well-intentioned pre-music conversation that you have to get past before the music starts, so be patient). McNeal's also got some ear-data available on the all-pervasive mySpace.com and on the semi-pervasive but visually less annoying purevolume.com.