BEHIND THE CURTAIN -- Liner Notes by Tom Sweeney 10/1/16 I’ve been writing about Harve Mann and his music for the past couple years and I believe BEHIND THE CURTAIN is his best collection ever. Harve as singer, actor, musician and brilliant songwriter is at the top of his game here. The album starts off strong with the already popular CAN’T GET A HUMAN ON THE PHONE followed by Harve’s valentine to Facebook I GET ALL THE NEWS I NEED FROM FACEBOOK. Then comes the title song with its intriguing Leonard Cohen like vocal and haunting lyrics. Of course Harve is a man of many voices with what seems to be unlimited vocal chops. His voices shine particularly bright on the rerelease of the soul ballad ANGEL BY MY SIDE. Harve also has a great guitar moment during the ride-out of this One-Mann wonder. There is not a weak cut on this album. Some are old, some are new, but they all seem to flow together. I loved the pairing of ANY RAINY DAY with ARC OF NOAH. While the best of Harve’s songs deepen with repeated listens, the bulk of these songs got to me on first listen. With Harve, the trick is you’ve got to really listen. Some of the other standouts for me are the Harve and Charee hit I COULDN’T MAKE IT WITHOUT YOU and PERHAPS IN THE NEXT LIFE with the short lived THE MANN ACT. Harve’s even shorter lived jazz trio can be heard in all their wild inventive glory on LOOKIN’ FOR A STAR. These dudes were a perfect complement to Harve’s keyboard and vocal. I’M A LOVER is a great rocker with some wonderful interplay between Harve’s lead guitar and keyboard. For fans of Harve’s unplugged recordings there are many joys to be found here including the touching PUERTO RICO. There are even a few cool instrumentals. In what Harve calls “these busy dizzy days …,” it’s a shame a lot of people don’t find the time to sit with headphones on and listen to a whole album. If you do that once this year, I recommend BEHIND THE CURTAIN as your first choice. Tom Sweeney 10/1/16