Bill O Writes

Best-known as the front man for the Shotgun Bandits and Tripl3 Crown, Brian Sances of Sandwich recently released his first solo CD, “Here Today.” The cover shows him sitting on a rock at the end of a jetty, playing his guitar. Listening to the disc, it’s easy to picture him sitting out there on a warm day, surrounded by water, as he works out some new songs.

His tunes have an appealing variety – sometimes folky, sometimes a reggae or ska vibe, sometimes a hip-hop beat. He keeps to a mellow groove – not a sleepy kind of mellow, but that relaxed kind of mellow that sweeps over you … when you’re sitting on a rock surrounded by the ocean.

While the sound is laid back, Sances is relentlessly upbeat in his lyrics. The ballad “Still In Love” is as romantic a song as you could ever hope to hear. On other songs he sings the praises of the ocean, his hometown and the power of living in the moment. That could tumble into schmaltz, but Sances puts enough oomph into the music that it comes across as inspiring.

Sances recorded, mixed and produced all the songs, and wrote them all except for one on which he got some co-writing help from some friends. The production is impressive; a friend listening from the next room stuck his head in and asked if I was listening to a Los Lonely Boys disc.

Highlight tracks: “Still in Love,” “In the Blink of an Eye” and “Judgement Day Remix” (featuring Ceej)

In addition to performing on his own, you might catch Sances playing with Ceej or the Adam Hoffman Revival.

For more information, visit www.briansances.com.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 14th, 2010 at 3:19 am and is filed under CD reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.