Press: Garett Brennan
Little Cottonwood - Garett Brennan (Three Pin Records)
Local songwriter climbs mountain, takes advantage of energy bars for you."Garett Brennan had two bright ideas for his new album, Little Cottonwood. One was to haul a bunch of microphones and digital recording gear 8,500 feet up a mountain outside Salt Lake City, to a little log cabin that would serve as his studio. The second was to get Clif Bar to underwrite the whole deal as a marketing tool, no doubt helping foot the bill to bring former Windham Hill producer Cookie Marenco up the mountain to helm the sessions.
"Been lazy too long," goes the album's first line, and the unhurried, loping pace of most songs here suggests that's not changing anytime soon. Much like an archetypal ski bum, Brennan's songs flee from structure, full of asymmetrical verses and irregular line lengths, and avoiding rhyme like it's avian flu. Brennan's clearly following the speak-singing storytelling style of Greg Brown or Tom Waits, but so far, his voice lacks their gravelly gravitas.
One thing the album does a remarkable job of is reproducing the environment in which it was made. The digital recording captures not only the well-played acoustic instruments but the rushing river outside the cabin with astounding clarity, providing a calming continuity that flows through the album. Eventually, on "These Knees (Thunder)," the location itself takes the lead, as a thunderclap enters right on cue with the instrumental's first verse, and a hailstorm joins in as the second verse begins, proceeding to wail as if taking a solo. If you can't afford your own mountain cabin, this album will take you right there."
–Jeff Rosenberg, Willamette Week, Portland, OR
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