Dev Null
*Unattainable* (self-produced)
This strikes me as one of this area’s bravest debuts, for a couple of reasons. First, the music is-- despite its flash-fire walls of guitar--incurably romantic, as are the vocals. Jonathan Wagner has one of the better voices in the Kansas City area, but the fact that he sounds like a cross between Kansas’s Steve Walsh and a number of early ‘80s descendants of Bryan Ferry means that he is always in some emotionally risky, vulnerable territory. Hats off that he avoids sounding like a thousand other Bono and Eddie Veder clones! And when the fuses of lead guitar smolder, curdle and coil the way they do on “Digging A Hole” everything about this band successfully launches into territory all its own.
www.dev-null.net

Stewart Francke
*Sunflower Soul Serenade* (Blue Boundary)
Stewart Francke has long been an important fixture of Detroit’s music scene, not only as a thoughtful and talented singer-songwriter but also as a respected area journalist. So the fact that Francke was diagnosed with leukemia in June sent shockwaves throughout Motown, some of which made their way to my soul because I spent my one and only evening in Detroit meeting the Franckes and visiting in their home. The best news is that Francke has a very good chance of beating this thing, and an amazing gift he has given to all the rest of us is this album finished while weathering this crisis.
*Sunflower Soul Serenade* is the kind of album you can’t imagine anyone making these days, and it is exactly the kind of album that can help you grapple with your fears and count the blessings in your life. Imagine the Beatles at the peak of psychedelic innocence, and you have a hint of how unabashedly lush and sweet this music is. If *Magical Mystery Tour* stands at the center of this sound, the spirit of Brian Wilson guides the vocals of “A Place to Stand in the World” and Phil Spector’s wall of sound pays a visit on the torturously poignant, “Have All the Good Things Come and Gone?” Bells, whistles, flutes, strings, brass and woodwinds abound throughout, but Francke’s soaring, searching vocals give all of this dreaminess flesh and bone.
With its fear and bravery and defiance, the song that grabs you by the throat and throws you to the ground is “Something to Be Said for the Light.” The rest of the album proves the case. Blue Boundary’s web site is at www.concentric.net/~francke. Donations to help leukemia patients and their families with financial difficulties may be sent to: the Stewart Francke Leukemia Foundation
PO Box 715
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48303