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Wednesday, September 17, 2008

CD Review: Donavon Frankenreiter - Pass It Around


Donavon Frankenreiter - Pass It Around
2008, Lost Highway Records

Laguna Beach’s Donavon Frankenreiter is a musician, a pro surfer and a family man. The passion and drive of all three pursuits come across on his third album, Pass It Around. Produced by multiple Grammy Award winner Joe Chiccarelli, Pass It Around features appearances by G. Love and Ben Harper.

Pass It Around opens with Life, Love & Laughter, an upbeat tune that's understated and seems to be an answer of sorts to Sheryl Crow's All I Wanna Do. Understated is a great way to describe Donavon Frankenreiter. He's a strong songwriter with a very mellow sound, but there is a certain vivacity that runs through his music like blood in the veins. Even in quiet moments that energy is always pressing outward. Too Much Water has an almost 1970's sound to it, like Dave Matthews singing with the Doobie Brothers.

I highly recommend Come With Me. It's a great song with great potential for radio and for licensing. It also happens to be the best song on Pass It Around in this writer's opinion. Other highlights include Mansions On The Sand, Sing A Song and the title track. The most effecting thing about the album though is Frankenreiter's voice. He's sort of a blue-eyed soul version of Dave Matthews or John Mayer. Great stuff.

Donavon Frankenreiter has a unique sound that is both familiar and new. He's a plus songwriter with a very retro sound pointing back to the 1970's, but updated enough to be modern. Pass It Around is a strong release and should help him build a solid fan base.

Rating: 3 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about Donavon Frankenreiter or purchase a copy of Pass It Around at http://www.donavonf.com/. Or, you could win a copy through Wildy’s World. We have two copies to give away. Just be one of the first two respondents to WildysWorld@gmail.com to be able to tell us the names of Donavon’s two sons and you’re a winner (this contest is limited to American and Canadian readers). For Canadian entrants, please be sure to answer the bonus question, what is 1+1?

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