My 1st Impression - Mike Cavanaugh

Every once in a while, an artist will contact me through Blogger, Myspace, email or on the street, and send me a link or pass me a CD. I love checking out new stuff, and I try to evaluate them all fairly, but there are only so many hours in a day. It just so happens that I had a spare hour today and an artist just happened to contact me at that moment.

Via Myspace:

Hi how's it goin? My name's Mike Cavanaugh and I'm a singer/songwriter from Boston. Was just seeing if you might be interested in hearing some new music. I have 6 original songs up on my page. Would love to know what you think of them either way.

Thanks.
Mike
www.myspace.com/mikecavanaugh

My Reply:
Hi Mike,

Thanks for connecting with me. Right off the top, I could hear Damien Rice's influence in your music. That's a good thing, by any means. There seems to be a void of Heart & Soul in a lot of music today, but that doesn't seem to be a problem with you.

Your songwriting is pretty top shelf, and you've nailed each performance. On 'What You're Doing To Me', I found a little vocal resemblance to a Canadian artist you might know, one Bryan Adams. You can take that comparison however you like it, but I can sense a touch of rock in your voice. I'd be interested to hear you live, where you'd really have to rely on your voice for bringing up the intensity.

The production is really bare-bones here, but that's probably your intent. One of my favourite artists in the world is Iron & Wine. His record 'When The Creek Drank The Cradle' is pretty much as basic as it gets, but the power in his voice and lyrics is just incomparable. I think you should continue keeping it simple. The purity of your music speaks for itself.

Your music isn't something I'd listen to every day, but as the rain is pelting my window right now, your songs are kind of suiting. I know absolutely nothing about you, but I'm glad I took the 20 minutes to check out your stuff. I'd like to hear more.

-Nathan Stafford
myspace. com/nathanstaff