Tim Pourbaix’s new 14 song album, ‘River Well’ is that very good secret being whispered in ears. In the past 5 years leading up to this full band release, Tim Pourbaix (pronounced ‘pour-bay’) has mastered the art of the solo acoustic performance. It’s important to recognize that the solo acoustic show has been abused, and many fans now cringe at the sight of single performer holding an acoustic guitar on stage. So many players stop at the water’s edge, not taking the instrument’s transforming power seriously. Like a pitcher on the mound, Tim Pourbaix (TP) has reclaimed bragging rights with his solo performances. TP can regularly be seen reshaping noisy NYC stages and backrooms into quiet collectives of rapt attention with his unique playing style and smoky-smooth voice. It has to be witnessed to be truly understood, but TP has developed his own songwriting techniques, tonal craft, and delivery system for his brand of music. For the experienced guitarist or listener, TP harnesses attention through a very sophisticated touch of the strings (no pick ever). His unique strumming rhythms and deliberate skewing of meter with the right hand ask the listener to provide their own internal rhythm, or ‘ghost band’ accompaniment. Because we are percussive beings (heartbeat and the drum) and we yearn to make order of things, these vacuum packed acoustic rhythms are inherently intoxicating. TP is well aware of this power, and relies upon it, occasionally subverting/inverting it for effect (see, ‘Night Lights’, ‘Call Me Out’, ‘The Wreck’). The ‘ghost band’ at the heart of every TP song is fully articulated in this 14 song collection, with a couple notable solo tracks (including the album’s title track, ‘The River Well’). Assuming you’ve listened to TP’s prior solo EP work, there is something decidedly challenging about hearing these fully articulated band songs for the first time: The ‘ghost band’ is revealed, but it’s not your ‘ghost’. A great deal of care was put into the translation of TP’s solo sound to full band. These songs, recorded in collaboration and produced by Quinn McCarthy (at The Creamery in Greenpoint, BK), are surpassingly artful in their arrangement and design. As a collective, these songs coexist in a very specific space, perhaps different than what you’d imagine. At its most essential, this is a 4 piece band (acoustic guitar, electric bass, drums, and lead electric guitar) serving to defend TP’s elegiac voice and precise poetry. Without abandoning that ‘mainstream radio worthy’ quality, great importance is placed on structural experimentation and percussion quality. Though extensive in the live performance, Whitney Lockert’s electric guitar shows up in the latter half of the album with an oily ‘Nashville-style’ texture. Lockert’s delicate touch is smartly placed and recalls a JJ Cale ‘behind-the-beat’ style, with added church-echo haunt (see, ‘No Rooms’, ‘Call Me Out’, ‘Take Notes’). There is a noteworthy reciprocity between Dan Pugach’s tasteful pulse-drumming and TP’s specific strum-patterns. For instance, a tune that might command a pervasive drum beat may only give way to full-on drumming for the last 45 seconds (see, ‘Night Lights’, ‘Police Tape’). Further, the 4-piece band-dialogue is experimental at times, swirling with complicated stop/start structures and interludes (see, ‘Police Tape’, ‘The Wreck’). Pugach has tremendous ‘touch’ as a drummer, and his perfect complement to TP’s guitar peculiarities cannot be overemphasized, particularly in the straight ahead charmers (see, ‘The Smoke’, ‘Chapters’, ‘Call Me Out’, ‘Take Notes’, ‘Happy’). Quite astonishingly, Pugach, in complicity with Quinn’s unblemished engineering/mixing techniques, may have discovered the most beautiful cymbal shimmer sound on the planet, which blankets the Spartan corners of the record. Showing restraint, songs that your inner ‘ghost band’ might articulate with full band, are elegantly left alone for delivery in solo performance on the record - but prepare yourself - these songs are blazing with full band interpretation (see, ‘River Well’, ‘Poets in the Page’). ‘The River Well’ is set to be released on CD and Download on May 4th, 2014 and is a strong candidate for best album of 2014. Tim Pourbaix - vocals/acoustic guitar Quinn McCarthy - bass/producer/engineer/mixing/mastering Whitney Lockert - lead guitar Dan Pugach - drums/percussion Ryan O’Toole - vocal harmony Maarten Kleyne - album art/design *About the author: At the helm of the NYC-based Indie band, Amateur Blonde, Ryan Roger O'Toole is an avid vinyl collector and champion of new music. O'Toole can be seen on stage regularly in NYC with Amateur Blonde, as well as a sideman with several other artists. Amateur Blonde has released 2 records.