Justin Vollmar 13 Or So People Who Need Chances CD

Justin Vollmar's second album is folksy, on-the-porch or around-the-campfire singer/songwriter music. There's a difference between this and most such music that fell into this description prior to the 21st century, for Vollmar espouses a vulnerability and quirky introspection largely missing from the music made at most informal social gatherings. There's a lo-fi ambience reminiscent of numerous records that have come out on labels such as K or Knw-Yr-Own, as if it was done in a bedroom on a cheap home recorder rather than in a studio (which, for all we know, might have been the case). Primarily sticking to just a sole acoustic guitar or a sole electric guitar for accompaniment, with occasional rustling or howling noises in the background (as well as an instrumental for toy piano and found sounds), it's got the minimal charm of naive art, put across by the artist's bemused, fragile voice. Like many such recordings, though, it's not necessarily something that demands getting released, or intended to be heard by a wide audience, though it's pleasingly winsome for what it is. And as integral as the skeletal arrangements are to the bare-bones atmosphere, when some non-guitar instrumentation augments the closing "Lucy of the Blue Hills," you wonder if at least some of the material might stand to benefit from even a mild boost in fullness. ~ Richie Unterberger