It takes a great deal of courage to play acoustic music. When it's just your voice and a single guitar, there aren't many places to hide. If your songwriting is even remotely sub-par, every member of your audience knows it immediately. Denison Witmer braves these risks, and the Christian music world is blessed because of it.
Witmer's new EP, River Bends, contains five songs of stripped back, emotive songs. These songs are instantly both intensely personal and remarkably accessible, touching the innermost regions of the human soul. Witmer has said that his songs are "100% autobiographical," and it shows. There are no fancy metaphors here, only his feelings set down to melancholy melodies and finger-picked acoustic guitars.
The five songs on the EP show intense pain, but also the hope that beckons Witmer through this pain. "You Got Me Good," for example, tells a heart-wrenching story of lost love, but "Healing Time" balances this with hope:
You don't feel at home
Underneath our Pennsylvania sky
Covered in guitars
Deep inside the music, there's a place for you
Your parents and your friends
You don't think that we know how you feel
Waving to your car
If we had a choice, we'd go along with you
We could take a drive
Cities and street lights pass you by
We could take a drive
You could give your heart healing time
It's albums like River Bends that make me wish there were more artists of this genre. Here's hoping Denison Witmer's upcoming full-length is as rewarding as his EP.
5 tocks
Other coverage for this album
Opus 2002Reviewed by Jason MoreheadPersonally, I think every overly earnest singer/songwriter with an acoustic guitar and a 4-track would do well to purchase one or two Denison Witmer albums. And frankly, I think we would all be better off. They'd become better songwriters, and we wouldn't have to deal with half as many angst-ridden ballads that read like so much bad high school poetry. And they can start by picking up this…HM Magazine #81Reviewed by David M. PoggeWhy in the world is this CD being reviewed in your Hard Music authority? Well, it's anything but hard, but it is music, so I guess it halfway fits. Velvet Blue Music has done it again with this five-song EP that will bring a tear to your eye, half from the sweet sadness of the lyrics and half from the sheer beauty of the music. There are very few artists that can put out a release with just their…Decapolis 1999Reviewed by ConradSinger/songwriter. One guy, one guitar. Typically this stuff gets on my nerves because all I can think of is some gloomy guy in his room with his guitar singing about all the sad things in his life. But before you think I'm going to trash this album this one is actually pretty good for this genre. If he was in the 70s, you'd call him a folk singer. I don't know what you'd call him now. Vocal…Decapolis 1999Reviewed by Tom BastianI have been a fan of Denison Witmer for quite a few years now. There is just something about his songwriting that grabs me. Basically what you have here is Denison and his guitar, with some help from his friends contributing maybe a second guitar here or there. I guess you could say Denison has kind of a folk feel to his music. It's not as much of a folk feel as Damien Jurado or Elliott Smith…Decapolis 1999Reviewed by TimThis is really good slow acoustic music. While I don't really like this guy's voice, the songs are thought provoking, and the music is enjoyable. It was nice to listen to this on my 30 minute drive home from my girlfriend's house. I don't normally like slower stuff, but this is good. B+Decapolis 1999Reviewed by Matt R.Following up a masterpiece of a debut record, this little holdover for the next record is just that, a holdover. The three new songs on the record once again show Denison's knack for song-writing, and his ability to tell a story in his songs. With lyrics like, "I watched you walk until I could see you no more...All of my love in the form of a sixteen year old girl," he speaks volumes about the…Similar sounding releases
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