Dan Reeder

Dan Reeder’s new second album Sweetheart consists of 15 original songs, plus a cover of Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” that sounds like the demo version Gary Brooker probably dreamed of singing 39 years ago before all that baroque production-work got in the way. It isn’t so much a sequel to his wonderful out-of-nowhere, out-of-time 2003 debut, Dan Reeder, as it is an extension of--a more freewheeling elaboration on--his first musical offering. Certain themes recur on Sweetheart: Dan likes to be alone (“I Don’t Really Want To Talk To You”; “Just Leave Me Alone Today”); Dan likes to think about, and have, sex (“Pussy Titty”; “Pussy Heaven”--for the son of a minister, he’s got quite a mouth on him). But most of the time, Sweetheart is about the sound of Dan Reeder’s cracked, dry, confiding voice and the pleasant noises he gets out his homemade guitars, his multi-tracked harmonies with himself and his occasional puff on a harmonica. There’s a certain stubbornness here, and I’m not just talking about the 37 years Dan says it’s taking for his cappuccino to arrive in Sweetheart’s lead-off cut, “I’m Waiting For My Cappuccino.” Reeder has the stubbornness--the creative persistence--of an artist: You get the definite feeling he’ll do or make whatever he wants and the hell if anyone else likes or wants it. In a world where most pop culture is about finding out what the maximum number of people desire and then manufacturing something that will max-out that desire till you puke, Reeder’s quiet, sharp-witted, literally home-made music reminds you why some people create: to satisfy themselves, and then, if possible, make some money in the bargain.