New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Sherman Ewing Official Website) USA TODAY: "Rootsy, Accessible Tunes...a Wry Lyricism That Suggests a Hard-Won Emotional Integrity" - 'The Mission' is a "Standout Track"
RELIX MAGAZINE: "A Triumphant Storyteller with a Soulful Brand of Pop-Friendly Rock That, at Times, Channels a Sound Similar to Early Folk-Period Dylan with an Upbeat Twist"
National Outlets Praise Indie Rocker Sherman Ewing's 'Single Room Saloon'
"A Distinctly Urgent Feel; Imagine the Beatles Playing in an Americana Style"
National outlets USA TODAY and RELIX MAGAZINE have weighed in on Indie rocker Sherman Ewing's 'Single Room Saloon', with respected pop/rock critic Elysa Gardner covering the album both as a 'CRITIC'S PICK CD REVIEW' for USATODAY.com and as a print edition 'Listen Up Music Pick' in this past Tuesday's newspaper "rootsy, accessible tunes...a wry lyricism that suggests a hard-won emotional integrity" 'The Mission' is "a standout track," its "mournful edge belies the deceptively catchy melody." RELIX MAGAZINE's Sam Davis praised Ewing as "a triumphant storyteller with a soulful brand of pop-friendly rock that, at times, channels a sound similar to early folk-period Dylan with an upbeat twist." WildysWorld noted the album "has a distinctly urgent feel; imagine the Beatles playing in an Americana style" - "brings to mind some of the better works of Wilco." See the full write-ups, below, and listen to a streaming sampler, here: https://www.sethcohenpr.com/player/shermanewing/
USA TODAY Print Edition 3/1/11
Listen Up Music Pick By Elysa Gardner
https://www.usatoday.com/life/music/reviews/2011-03-01-listen01_TB_N.htm
The Mission, Sherman Ewing: A wry, mournful edge belies the deceptively catchy melody of this standout track from Ewing's Single Room Saloon.
USATODAY.com - CRITIC'S PICK CD REVIEW 2/26/2011 By Elysa Gardner https://www.usatoday.com/life/music/reviews/2011-02-26-listen-up_N.htm
Seeking sound advice? USA TODAY's music critics spotlight spin-worthy current albums bubbling beneath the hyped hits.
Sherman Ewing, Single Room Saloon
* * * ROCK
It's widely believed that all contemporary singer/songwriters owe some debt to Bob Dylan, but few acknowledge it as unabashedly as Ewing does. That's in large part because of the younger troubadour's voice, a rough-hewn, keening instrument that grasps like a desperate lover for the higher notes, sometimes in vain. But Ewing's rootsy, accessible tunes also have a wry lyricism that suggests a hard-won emotional integrity - and make Saloon's sentimental flourishes not just pardonable, but endearing. - Elysa Gardner Download: Heaven Waits, Happiness, The Mission
RELIX MAGAZINE CD Review MARCH ISSUE - by Sam Davis
https://www.relix.com/reviews/cds/2011/03/07/sherman-ewing-single-room-saloon
Single Room Saloon is the product of an artist with a troubled past, told through a voice that is truly genuine. Sherman Ewing's traumatic life has included the death of both of his parents and a battle with drugs. But through his music, he moves forward-emerging as a triumphant storyteller with a soulful brand of pop-friendly rock that, at times, channels a sound similar to early folk-period Dylan with an upbeat twist. On his second release, Ewing attracts an impressive list of guests including longtime collaborator JoJo Hermann (Widespread Panic), Michael Ray (Sun Ra, Kool and the Gang), Phish lyricist Tom Marshall and more. The album also features jangly country guitar lines from former Spin Doctors' guitarist Anthony Krizan ("Grey Skies Blue") and Ray's climactic trumpet hooks ("Heaven Waits," "Single Room Saloon").
Ewing wrote or co-wrote all 10 songs on the album, which features a notable community of musicians including Bob Dylan, Phish, Keith Richards, Widespread Panic, Spin Doctors, Sun Ra and Hank Williams, Jr alum.
The acclaimed CD is available digitally now via iTUNES, Amazon and CDBaby (https://www.cdbaby.com/cd/shermanewing2,) and will be released via brick-and-mortar this Spring, to coincide with a series of U.S. tour dates details will be announced soon. Ewing evokes John Hiatt, Neil Young, Sheryl Crow, The Beatles and others with his upbeat and eclectic mix of country, rock, pop and singer-songwriter tracks...Surprises abound, as Ewing opens songs with country guitars and then unabashedly shifts to soulful trumpet, delivers dreamy harmonies on 'Flatland', and crafts killer hooks on tracks such as 'Grey Skies Blue'. Ewing's processed vocals and understated, tense grooves drive the title track to its trumpet crescendo, and on the anthemic 'Walk On,' he reflects on the night of his mother's death. Ewing is a winning storyteller, and his down-home lyrics have an inviting quality that draw the listener in.
WILDYSWORLD CD Review
2/16/2011 By Wildy Haskell
https://wildysworld.blogspot.com/2011/02/sherman-ewing-single-room-saloon.html
Sherman Ewing Single Room Saloon
2011, Okindalia Records
Sherman Ewing walked through hell and lives to tell the tale. Tell it he does on his latest album, Single Room Saloon. The Columbia University grad, who once played in a band called Sherman And The Bureaucrats with John "Jojo" Hermann of Widespread Panic, grew up in British boarding schools during the birth of the punk movement. His songwriting evokes some of that attitude infused into a blend of pop, rock and country. With an all-star band at his back (members have worked with Bob Dylan, Spin Doctors, Hank Williams, Jr., Phish, Keith Richards and Widespread Panic), Ewing opens an emotional vein for all the world to hear.
Single Room Saloon opens with "Heaven Waits", an intriguing commentary on materialism and the corruption it breeds. Ewing points to a light in the distance in a delicious blend of country guitars and sophisticated rock n roll. "Single Room Saloon" has a distinctly urgent feel; imagine the Beatles playing in an Americana style. The result is an edgy sound that will stay with you. "Grey Skies Blue" is catchy, but its Ewing's guitar work that most stands out. It's a tune about that one person who makes even the darkest day bright, and brings to mind some of the better works of Wilco. "Flatlands" is a dreamy Americana blend that's as pleasing to the ear as it is pointed in message.
"Walk On" is all about making your way in the world and finding your place. It's a delicious bit of soulful, buzzy rock and roll. Things slow down for a couple of songs, but Ewing gets back on track with "Bye Bye America". Ewing laments those who would stand by and watch America's decline as long as they get what they feel is coming to them. Ewing keeps up the social commentary on "The Mission", delving into the growing gap between rich and poor and the inability of the latter to keep up. Ewing closes with "Marilyn", an inconspicuous final track that plays like an epilogic vector.
Sherman Ewing shows a distinctive ability in the crafting of songs on Single Room Saloon. The material presented here is, for the most part, cogently written and melodically sound. Ewing's special talent is in the musical details, which he wraps around the melodic core in layers both distinctive and refined. Not all of the songs here work on all levels, but there's more than enough here to make Single Room Saloon worth your time.
BLOGCRITICS/
NO DEPRESSION
https://www.nodepression.com/profiles/blogs/music-review-sherman-ewing
https://blogcritics.org/music/article/music-review-sherman-ewing-single-room/
BY JACK GOODSTEIN - 1/7/11
If you are unfamiliar with the name Sherman Ewing, the digital release of his second album, Single Room Saloon on January 11 may well remedy that. This ten song rock, pop, county collection runs the gamut from haunting bluesy social commentary to introspective soul searching, from upbeat swinging melodies to anarchic cacophonies. His lyrics are personal and emblematic of a generation. Ewing is a singer-song writer with something to say and he says it with a raw honesty that will remind you of early Dylan. The world he describes is not particularly pretty. It is a place where people fall, sometimes to rise again, sometimes not. More often than not his music is as harsh as that world, and when it isn't, when it seems melodic and tuneful, the lilting melodies are in ironic contrast to the disturbing lyrics. This may be pop music, but it is pop music as art.
"The Mission" has a lilting melody, but it is a song about the need for change in a society where people are on the streets dying from the heat, where people are fighting for the right of the road. The mission and what it stands for not only don't help; they stand in the way. "Angel," the chorus demands, "Burn this mission down." "Flatlands" has a sweet folk song vibe with a pulsating rhythm, but it describes 40,000 children wasted in the sand, with the vultures ready to pounce. The sweetness of the music morphs into the sadness of a dirge. "Heaven Waits" is a melodic old style folk rocker that looks at the idea of heavenly rewards with a somewhat jaundiced eye. Its opening guitar measures belie its message. Ewing has a way of using the music to lull the listener into a false sense of serenity, only to pull the rug away from anyone paying close attention to the lyric.
"Single Room Saloon," the title song, co-written by Tom Marshall, on the other hand uses a dissonant musical setting to echo the dissonance of the singer's relationship to a world that is like a single room saloon. He's still here, but he's "slightly out of tune," more than slightly in the light of some of the sonic distortion. It also features some rocking guitar work and a blasting trumpet solo. "Happiness" and "Right Behind the Scars" both seem to look at the chances for redemption after a misspent past. "I can hear the river calling," he says in "Right Behind the Scars," "will you let it take you out to sea?" In both, the music echoes the sense. "Walk On" is a classic anthem with a passionate guitar riff. "If you're lost in the night, you will find that there's love on the other side; walk on," directs the chorus. It ends with a gospel like coda featuring a guitar solo interspersed with chants of "walk on."
According to the bio on his website, Ewing is no new kid on the block. A 40 year old native of Minnesota, he went to boarding school in England. It was the time of the Punk revolution and as Ewing told Tipitina's John D'Aquila in an online interview, "Everyone was into the Sex Pistols." He came back to the States to go Columbia University, where he met "Jojo" Hermann of Widespread Panic. They began to play together in a band called Sherman and the Bureaucrats, and he continued playing around New York through the nineties. In 2002, he teamed with producer Godfrey Diamond
on his first solo album, Blue Moon. Among the influences on his music he mentions in the D'Aquila interview are Neil Young, James Taylor, Jim Croce, Harry Chapin and Bruce Springsteen. Bob Dylan, he says, "started me getting into the guitar." While his music is truly an eclectic mix, these singer-songwriters are clearly there in spirit.
Ewing collaborates again with Diamond and Hermann on this new album. Others included on the CD are Ivan Neville, drummer, George Recile and bassist, Tony Garnier. Zak Soulam and Jimbo Walsh help out on guitar and Michael Ray handles the trumpet work. Ewing's core band is made up of guitarist Anthony Krizan, Rob Clores on keyboards and a rhythm section of John and Kevin Hummel.
Click to see more recent coverage, here:
MELODIC.NET
Read the interview Q&A, here:
https://www.melodic.net/interviewsOne.asp?interviewId=353 By Rickard Holmgren, 1/12/11
EXAMINER.COM News
Sherman Ewing album to feature Bob Dylan's rhythm section By Harold Lepidus
https://www.examiner.com/bob-dylan-in-national/sherman-ewing-album-to-feature-bob-dylan-s-rhythm-section-listen-to-samples-1
JAMBANDS News
Jojo Hermann, Tom Marshall and Michael Ray Join Sherman Ewing's Single Room Saloon
https://www.jambands.com/news/2010/11/19/jojo-hermann-tom-marshall-and-michael-ray-join-sherman-ewing-s-single-room-saloon/
More about 'Single Room Saloon':
The album is Ewing's commentary on his life's journey from trauma to triumph, and his observations into what he observes as a world gone crazy. Devastation...Tenacity...The will to survive under brutal circumstances...A battle for personal salvation - these themes resonate for Ewing. In addition to being shipped to an English Boarding school, against his will, at the ripe age of ten, he recalls the following as a backdrop for the album: "having been brought up in Christian Science family and all that entailed...virtually no medical care; childhood trips to the dentist where drilling was done without anesthesia; witnessing the excruciating death of both parents, who chose prayer over medicine in their losing fights with cancer; a personal battle with drugs that took me to the streets, and finally rediscovering my own spiritual path through recovery." In fact, addiction and recovery are addressed in the title track and in 'Happiness', respectively. In 'Heaven Waits', Ewing jabs at our superficial world and finds dark humor in the concept of living simply in order to die and reach heaven. 'Flatland' imagines children as our soldiers...
'Single Room Saloon' was produced by Godfrey Diamond (Lou Reed, Aerosmith,) and contributors include Jojo Hermann of Widespread Panic, Dylan/Keith Richards drummer George Recile, Dylan bassist/Musical Director Tony Garnier, Phish lyricist/keyboardist Tom Marshall, the renowned Ivan Neville, NY rock guitarist Zak Soulam, trumpeter Michael Ray (Sun Ra, Kool and the Gang,) guitarist Jimbo Walsh and Ewing's core band, which features guitarist Anthony Krizan (formerly of Spin Doctors,) keyboardist Rob Clores, and the rhythm section of John and Kevin Hummel. Sherman Ewing wrote or co-wrote all tracks, and performs vocals and guitars.
The band throughout the CD is George Recile drums, Tony Guarnier bass, Zak Soulam on guitar (with the exception of 'Grey Skies Blue', which features Ewing's gigging band Anthony Krizan on Guitar, Rob Clores on keys, John Hummle on drums and Kevin Hummle on bass.) Ivan Neville appears on The Mission and Walk On; Jojo Hermann co-wrote Flatlands and plays keys; Jimbo Walsh does not play on CD, but co-wrote The Mission, Happiness, and Highway America; Tom Marshall co-wrote the songs Single Room Saloon and Marilyn; Anthony Krizan plays guitar and co-wrote Single Room Saloon, Walk On, Right Behind The Scars, Grey Skies Blue, and Marilyn, and has several featured guitar spots on the album.
