Joel & The Dymensions Street Corner CD

Singer and producer Joel Katz has had a lifelong love affair with the vocal group harmonies of the doo wop era, and has tirelessly promoted the genre as well as bringing his own high, clear tenor to bear on a series of contemporary recordings that carry on the tradition, often under the name Joel & the Dymensions (he has also sung lead with a number of other groups, including the Del-Satins, the Autumns, the Wizards, and the Platinums). The Dymensions aren't a vocal group per se, but a group of veteran singers like Johnny Maestro, Bobby Jay and Larry Chance that Katz brings together for his projects, and the result, as this brief sampler shows, is note-perfect and well-recorded throwback doo wop that doesn't attempt to stretch the boundaries of the form but instead respectfully reproduces it. Songs here like "Daddy's Home," "Why Don't You Write Me," and "My True Story" all have the feel of vintage genre classics, and if Katz could actually figure out how to bend the timeline of pop music history and flash back forty some years, they would have fit right in. ~ Steve Leggett

Liner Note Author: Dennis Pettet.