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Albuquerque the Magazine ReviewIt was a Saturday in June of 1995. A friend had heard about an open-air music fest on Central next to Bow Wow Records, and other than Seattle-based headliners Green Apple Quickstep, we weren’t familiar with any bands on the bill… but a free concert in the middle of a blocked-off intersection is a pretty attractive event when you’re twenty. Around four o’clock, acousta-rock locals Naomi took the stage. Performing their energizing set like veterans, singer/guitarists Jason Daniello and Ben Hathorne‘s soaring vocal tradeoffs drew spectators by the dozen to cheer and dance on the scorching blacktop. I was an instant fan. Moreover, it was an epiphany: Naomi’s infectious choruses and mature harmonies ran the stylistic gamut from Blues Traveler to Matthew Sweet to Blind Melon, but if a band that talented could reside completely beneath the mainstream radar, what other equally amazing underground acts might I not be lucky enough to stumble across in my own neighborhood? Nine years later, I’m still exploring the vast and genre-defying realms of underground music, and although Naomi is gone, Jason Daniello is writing and performing the most gloriously soulful stuff of his life. The new album’s title, Everything Good, sums it up: Jason has concentrated and distilled down everything good about Naomi and tempered it with the experience of nearly two decades making music, creating a those most taut and subtly powerful record of his career. Due in September, Everything Good is a Beatles-esque mood-pop masterpiece to file alongside modern classics like Beck’s Mutations and REM’s Automatic For The People. Seriously. Jason performs regularly (often at Kelly’s BYOB on Central), engaging audiences with a rich vocal tone as singularly recognizable as those of Peter Gabriel, Ben Folds, Billy Joel or Mark Lanegan -- though if he sounded enough like any one of them to really make a comparison, he wouldn’t be Jason. And of the events building up to his emergence as one of the most renowned singers in Albuquerque? “It’s just the ebb and flow of life,” he says. “Sometimes you’ve gotta inhale, sometimes you’ve gotta exhale.” Visit Jason’s website, www.jasondaniello.com, for an up-to-date gig schedule and info on all his records including the forthcoming Everything Good. Jadd Shickler- Albuquerque The Magazine |
© 2005, Jason Daniello Music. |