Artist: BAND: David Lykins
Album: blurry white guy
Website: http://ravindave.com
Genre: Americana
Sounds Like: lyle lovett, kris kristofferson
Technical Grade: 8/10
Production/Musicianship Grade: 8/10
Commercial Value: 8/10
Overall Talent Level: 9/10
Songwriting Skills: 9/10
Performance Skill: 9/10
Best Songs: Greetings From the Riviera, Let Me Carry This, Here's Your Love Song
Weakness: spotty vocals, slightly trebly overall sound (though band is great)
CD Review:
I really like Dave Lykins songwriting. Sure, Houston's a bit strident for an opener, and maybe you could quibble that sometimes he takes a while to get to the chorus, but here's a guy who's passionate about what he does, does it well, and has something to say. I've played this record cos I wanted to. Always the best excuse.

He doesn't have a great voice, but a serviceable one. At times he reaches into his higher register and it sounds great, fluid, and strong, but it happens all too rarely. But it feels like this should be his second career. His first should be songwriting. This man should have a publishing deal in Nashville, no doubt. It's a sad state of affairs when Dave Lykins hasn't had his songs recorded by anyone of note (I may be wrong about that- I misplaced his bio), and Toby Keith has...a career.
Not that there's anything wrong with Toby Keith, per se. But he should be singing Dave Lykins songs! I bet Alan Jackson could tear up Let Me Carry This For You or I've Been In Love Before. Or Clint Black. Here's Your Love Song is a wonderful anti-love song (would that be a hate song? Naaah...) about writing a tune for your love just as she's walking out the door. The hook is priceless: Here's your love song, take it and go!

That takes imagination. That takes humor. That takes guts. I can't think of anyone that might pull that off in today's bland macho environment. Maybe Reba McIntyre. Or Bonnie Raitt.
And Flying- that's a song done solo, but begging to be turned into a duet for...Randy Travis and Martina McBride? Alison Krauss and....whoever.

So maybe some American Idol runner-up with a bit of cash and a record deal will hear a tune or two and say hey, I could do that. That's  a great song. I sure hope so. And when he or she turns it into a major hit and you buy that record and turn it over and see songwriter: Dave Lykins, don't be surprised. Be glad. You've made one blurry white guy very happy...
That's the fantasy, at least. But in the meantime...Rock on. We salute you!

A for effort, 8 out of 10

The first two cuts of Blurry White Guy -- its cover features an unfocused photograph of the artist, a member of the Caucasian tribe -- so much resemble Joe Ely songs that you could almost swear that's what you're hearing. The opener, "Houston," is even set in Ely's Texas. The second, "Greetings from the Riviera," might as well be the title of an Ely piece (perhaps a ghostly echo of another communications-themed composition, "Letter to Laredo"), and its Hispanic protagonist could easily be a character in one of his border ballads. And there's the fusion of rock, country and folk, albeit without the Tex-Mex seasonings. David Lykins, after all, hails from Chicago.

Which may be why "I've Been in Love Before" and "Day After Valentine" are so reminiscent of Diamonds in the Rough-era John Prine, who grew up near Chicago and honed his craft in that city's folk clubs. What I'm not hearing, I am relieved to report, are the Rolling Stones, whom Lykins cites as a leading influence. It has been decades since the Stones weren't all self-indulgence and, worse, self-parody, the very model of a modern corporate musical enterprise. That aside, blues is absent from Lykins's approach, and rock is far from all that's happening here. So he's not a heartland rocker in the vein of Bob Seger or John Mellencamp either. Fortunately, neither is he a singer-songwriter of the sensitive sort.

Though its influences aren't hard to discern -- and there's nothing wrong with audible influences; what matters is what you do with them -- Blurry White Guy is a good album. I've been listening to it pretty much nonstop since it arrived in yesterday's mail, and I like it better each time it spins past. Lykins, the photographs (non-blurry ones on the back cover and inside) depicting as a beefy middle-aged man, is a smart, mature writer with a gimlet gaze and a wit's way of upending cliches. Titles like "I've Never Been in Love Before" and "Here's Your Love Song" raise certain expectations, all tinged with dread, and neither of these fulfills any of them. After learning he's delivered quite the opposite, which may be why Lykins calls his music "subversive country," you'll want to shake the man's hand.

He is, moreover, a riveting storyteller. "Good News" -- the CD's title is a quote from it -- has the punch-in-the-gut resonance of a tough, unsparing short story. There are, of course, lots of ballads about criminals, but I've never heard one quite like this. The closer, the unsettling "This is My House" (an elliptical tale of family conflict, so I infer), will leave you shaken and moved. It will also leave you wanting more and anticipating the songs, sure to be even better next time, to come.

   I arrived at 7:45 PM Thursday night to be there for the hard 8:00PM load in time. Tom the bass palyer and Phil the drummer were already there. And that was it. No opening band - no headliner.
   Overall the show went well and we had a nice group on hand for our first gig as a band. It was great for me to finallyhear this thing in the environment that it was intended. I learned a bit about how I need to tweak the guitar and amp combo for future reference. Phil and Tom are a stellar rythm section and I am lucky to have them.
    Now let's talk a bit about commitment shall we? The band that we were supposed to open for (to remain namless forevermore) bailed out on the gig. Apparently the manager cam in earlier, took a look at the stage set up for Sylvie's, and decided that they could not squeeze the entire band and all of their equipment in there. I can certainly understand that. What I don't understand is - why not do a stripped down set? I saw Matt the Electrician play to 5 people with no sound system at all at Horseshoe when that bar decided to flake out and forget he was going to be there. The guy came all the way from Austin Tx. and would not be denied. Matt sat in the corner on a stool and played for the handful of us that were there. For nothing, I'm guessing, since nobody was there to work the door. I bought 2 cd's from him that night. Last Summer I saw the band "Mothfight" from San Antonio play a gig to basically the other bands that were on the bill and maybe be a couple of other people. They also had a lot of equipment and people in the band. The small crowd was no impediment to the performance. They kicked ass and now I am a fan, To contrast, last Thursday night 2 people walked in to see the aforementioned nameless jam band and were disappointed they had made the trip and got a hotel downtown just to see these guys. That's quite a bit of expense for a no show. Also 2 people is about 148 bodies shy of what this band had bragged to Sylvie they would bring in. So bullshit alert there. 
   Anyway, to liberally paraphrase Carlton Fisk,  "Play the fucking gig." Even if it's to an empty room. Shit, pretend it's a rehearsal. Otherwise you may be mocked all night. Scratch that. You will be mocked all night.
Mercilessly.

    I will post more when it gets closer but I have to let you know that I will be debuting the new band on April 9th at Sylvie's. Me and the boys will be opening for a southern-rock/jam band called SwampDaWamp that will be in town from Charlotte NC. If you've never seen me play before and were curious, this would be the night. If you have heard me and wondered what it would sound like if I was even louder, this would be the night. I would like to cram as many people in there as I possibly can. Yes, it's a Thursday night, but we'll be done in time for you to make it home and watch Letterman.
    Phil Krawiec, the drummer and Tom Benjamin, the bass player have been working hard on these songs of mine. They sound like nothing you are used to if you have only seen me play solo or have heard the CD. These guys are great musicians and I am driving way up in the marbles trying to keep up. But I am keeping up. Mostly. In the process I have become an exponentially better guitarist working with these fellows. Phil is a powerful, yet tastful drummer and Tom calls down the thunder with his mighty Rickenbacker. Given that, I pretty much have to dispatch the sensitive singer-songwriter paradigm and crank it up. And so I shall. 
   To Recap: Sylvie's Lounge, (1902 W. Irving Park, Chicago)Thursday April 9th, 8:00PM, $5.00 Cover. Tell 'em you came to see Dave. Door tally is very important.