Praise for SMOKIN: "...some compositions that belong in the top drawer of any writer." B. Lichtenbert, The Illinois Entertainer, 1981 "...SMOKIN show off a lot of musical savvy and wide range of writing skill....As if an album of good, listenable music weren't enough of an achievement, his writing show that rare knack for seizing a feeling and interweaving shap verbal images with the instrumentation." Chris Powers, Isthmus, Madison, WI, 1981 "...Plaehn's vocal quality is most reminiscent of country rhuma king Jesse Winchester, while his phrasing often approximates Phoebe Snow's jazzy blues." Rich Borgerson, Prairie Sun, Peoria, 1981 Praise for MOUTH FULL OF BLUES: "An Iowan worth watching and listening to, Plaehn's nearly flawless six-song EP is mostly reworked versions of (now) traditional tunes...Plaehn, who is a sure-mouthed harp player, also wisely covers Tony Glover's '65 blues 'Don't Let Your Right Hand Know What Your Left Hand Do'. Trying his own hand on 'Satisfying Man,' the Iowan makes a Mose Allison go at a bluesy number right up the urban back alley. The instrumental backing is first rate, but it's Plaehn's able-bodied singing and soulful sense of hymnody and rural blues forms that give this rounder it's wings...'Vigilante Man' will make you soar." Martin Keller, City Pages, Minneapolis, 1982