River Bends
Artist: Denison Witmer
Label: Velvet Blue Records
URL: http://www.voicenet.com/~denison/
Time: 5 Tracks/17:23
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 homeIt'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.
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 youWe could take a drive
Cities and street lights pass you by
We could take a drive
You could give your heart healing time
Michial Farmer
