review of Listen by Tom Hendricks

review 
        of Listen The Night by whatRwe? (Klyd Watkina and Mike Panasuk) from MUSEA 
        Title: Listen The Night

Technical Quality: Recording quality is very high.
Cover graphics, average. Guitar work is exceptional.
Talking Voice is very good.

Innovative Quality: Above average in the unusual mix of repeated poetic phrases and story telling; plus , innovative guitar work that I describe as folk/jazz or bluegrass/jazz.

Review: Extraordinary guitar player Michael Panasuk, does some amazing standard guitar work (and some rock band arrangements) to illustrate the poetic storytelling of Klyd Watkins with his hypnotic voice.

The bulk of the songs are a mix of Watkins's recitations over Panasuk's standard guitar accompaniment alternating with Panasuk instrumentals.

Watkins words are often surreal with lots of repeated echoing phrases coming in from every angle of the stereo. It's not always clear what he is saying, or its meaning, but the convoluted message is mesmerizing and dramatic, and his voice seems perfect for spellbinding the listener. Note his Southern drawl that adds so much flavor.

Panasuk's accompaniments are a standout. His guitar work (and I am a guitar player) is something I haven't heard before and can best describe as a mix of free form guitar improvisations that mix folk with jazz or bluegrass with jazz. The CD is set up so that the spoken stories/songs alternate with the solo standard guitar work. We have pure guitar in such songs as Herlene and Logjam Do It On The Mountain and the middle song of each of the two trilogy pieces. His guitar improvisations are worth the price of the cd by themselves. But they sound even better when it alternates with the storytelling.

Song 1 Listen The Night - a cool and bluesy full band song. Song 2 (Origin trilogy) - my favorite on the album starts out with a sort of mantra of "What You Gonna Wear?", then a guitar part "The Whole Size Of the Valley," then a story about how a triangle of lovers turns into a constellation - certainly a surreal gem - called "Origin of the Constellation Called Froggy's New Year's Eve.
Song 3 Herlene and Logjam Do it On The Mountain - another guitar song.
Song 4 Smear, and Song 6 Blab Blab - two short silly surreal nonsense songs.
Song 5 Birth is A Bitch - a rock band song instrumental
Song 7 (Big Love Trilogy) - which follows the form of the other trilogy.
Song 8 Listen The Night (reprise) - jumbled version of the opener and my least favorite song.

The two ˜trilogy" works were flatout wonderful and these dramatic spellbinding recitations mixed with these spacy folk guitar improvisations in between; are startlingly unpredictable, melodic and powerful. Same for those cuts that feature guitar alone. The two rock songs, #1 and #5 were solid but not as original. And the others songs were not quite as good.

I wonder, if the meanings of the lyrics were more clear, would that give the message more power? Perhaps, perhaps not.

But as is this CD is a fine accomplishment with a great voice, an incredible guitar, and a mix that spotlights both to their best advantage.