CD REVIEW: Paul Hanover – “Know Your Soul”
By Stacey Board - 06/23/2004 - 10:50 PM EDT
Artist: Paul Hanover Album: “Know Your Soul” CD Review:
I want to describe this, as unlikely as it sounds, as a cross between John Cougar Mellencamp and Jimmy Buffet.
I say John Cougar Mellencamp because Hanover’s singing reminds me of him. I say Jimmy Buffett because most of the songs are uptempo and not trying to be mysterious or poetic. They are lyrics for the ‘everyman’.
One of the strongest songs in my opinion is “Know Your Soul”, a muscular bluesy soulful number that sounds a bit like a scaled back Lenny Kravitz tune. It has a nice groove and the whole band is especially tight on this track.
Hanover plays a mean acoustic guitar. The recording quality is very good here, and it can be difficult to capture the subtleties of acoustic guitar well. The team of backing musicians he has here with him are very strong, especially his percussionist and drummer, Matthew Burgess and Steve Hill respectively.
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