DEBUT OF A JACK-OF-ALL-TEXTURES
by MARTY HUGHLEY of the Oregonian
Friday, September 12, 1997
Summary: David Ryan Harris mixes solid guitar chops with keen harmonic sense
Three years ago, when the Dionne Farris album ``Wild Seed -- Wild Flower'' was released but before its remarkable single ``I Know'' grew into the light of the Top 10, Farris was most readily identified by reference to her earlier work.
She'd been an ``extended family member'' of Arrested Development and had stamped ``Tennessee,'' the hip-hop group's breakthrough hit, with a distinctive gospel wail.
Similarly, the easiest reference point for David Ryan Harris is his contribution to Farris' hit. The ear-grabbing country-blues slide guitar that helped make the fusion of styles on ``I Know'' come across so convincingly was played by Harris, who also co-produced the album and was musical director for Farris' terrific touring band.
And, just as ``Wild Seed'' revealed a vibrant, wide-ranging talent, so does Harris' solo debut.
In the early '90s, Harris was part of a young Atlanta band called Follow For Now that echoed such bands as Fishbone and Living Colour in its hard-hitting fusion of funk, ska, thrash and progressive rock. But the group foundered, reportedly because of management problems. Harris has been working on his own music since before helping Farris with her project and eventually signed with 57, a new label led by Brendan O'Brien, Pearl Jam's producer and a fellow Atlantan.
The resulting album reflects a maturity of vision and a musical open-mindedness to match Harris' abundant guitar chops. He acknowledges as prime influences Stevie Wonder, Sly Stone, the Allman Brothers and Bad Brains. But while the album ranges from bluesy rockers to lushly poetic musings to pure pop pleasures, it finds a cohesive character through Harris' invitingly soulful voice and Wonder-fully keen harmonic sense.
Harris does so many things so well (writing, arranging, producing, performing all vocals and guitars and so on), it's hard to know where to start praising him. He's a jack-of-all-textures on guitar -- from the shimmering e-bow intro of ``Me and the Leaves'' to the acidic-freakout solo that climaxes ``It's All the Same'' -- but he specializes in beefy funk rhythm riffs as tasty as Brunswick stew.
While it's easy to get caught up in just the sound and the feeling, Harris turns a neat phrase or two, also. In ``Change,'' he chides those unwilling to challenge themselves: ``Well that old man's . . . is rotting in his favorite rocking chair/Hell and high water drop by, and they always find him there.'' And the album's should-be smash single, the gorgeous pop confection ``Six Feet off the Ground,'' turns on this romantically ebullient chorus: ``You make a psychedelic town out of a world with no color or sound/the way your kisses lift me six feet off the ground.''
If radio programmers aren't scared off by such an unclassifiable talent, Harris' career should lift off soon, too.
***Thanks to Furious Rose for submitting this review.
