Benjy Ferree tried his hand at a few careers before settling on music. He had dreams of being an actor and even headed out to Hollyweird. Instead of landing on the silver screen, he ended up babysitting for David Lynch’s kid, before deciding that music was probably the better long term option. Just the childcare gig alone might lead you to think that singer/songwriter Benjy would kick out some dark nightmare-riddled tunes but actually, it’s just the opposite. Ferree has emerged, almost out of nowhere, as fully-formed artist with an album full of bouncy fun pop tunes that recall The Beatles during their happy days when they still looked at the world through rose-colored glasses and chirped about places like Penny Lane. In fact, he’s such a whiz at laying down breezy melodies that he can sing strings of “la la las” and come off as charming instead of lazy like most singers would.
Ferree is one of those rare singers who is blessed with a high voice just made for pretty harmonies, but yet there is still a lot of color in his singing and his vocals still maintain a bit of world weary scrappiness. Whether he’s walking on the bright side with fun pop tunes like “In the Countryside” or skulking around dark corners for the harder-edged “Dogkillers” Benjy Ferree has made a gorgeous minimalist album that proves that a man, a guitar and a harmonica are just about the perfect combination. Even when he’s trying out something as old-fashioned as the waltzing melody he uses on the song “Private Honeymoon”, the tune still comes beautifully to life.
He may circle a little too closely around the same sort of material at times, but there’s still a lot of pleasure to be found from listening to a singer like Benjy Ferree who knows exactly what kind of music he wants to make and then goes for it all the way. |