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With poetic soul and whole grain guitar goodness, Sleepy River (a.k.a. singer/songwriter Justin Kline) paints beautiful word pictures over a velvety, white canvas of subdued, bronze-stringed melodies on the indie debut, The Funeral Birth of a Tree.

Kline begins his intimate, soulful disc with “Dark Sounds,” a Beach Boys homage that is anything but its namesake until the tragic lyrics begin to overshadow the bright “Doo doo doo” harmonic vocals that shimmer like intermittent sunlight speckling the surface of a deep lagoon.

“Bring to me a souvenir of silence / Pour a cup of water on the sun…Bring to me a souvenir of patience / Life is a poison arrow in my chest,” Kline continues in his bard-like interlude, “Souvenir of Silence.”

Like late night, candlelit confessions, Kline’s songs flicker with warmth and reflection throughout this vocally rich album. The great thing about acoustic music is its timeless quality: string and wood, voice and emotion all rise above whatever stylistic fads are sweeping the current pop charts. Sleepy River feels as much at home on the grassy banks of the Elizabethan Thames or the darkened back corner of an Internet café.

Recommended if you like Bright Eyes, Iron and Wine, mellow Mae.

Greg Adams
3/23/06