Artist: Don’t Ask
Album: Nothing
Review by Dan MacIntosh
Todd Christoffel is the driving force behind the trio Don’t Ask. The group’s name is humorous, by the way. It comes from the common question musicians oftentimes hear whenever people find out they play music professionally: “What kind of music do you play?” In most cases, musicians don’t play only one musical style. Sure, there are diehard blues guys that spend their days and nights mastering chord patterns, as well as metal heads dedicated to perfecting hammer-ons and hammer-offs. But for the most part, artists enjoy a little bit of everything. Besides, few artists ever want to become typecast. The best musicians are musical handymen, if you will.
Not surprisingly, then, these 14 songs are sometimes a little difficult to categorize neatly. Christoffel is blessed with an extremely emotive singing voice. It’s not big and booming, nor is it high and sweet. But whenever he sings these songs, the listener feels something good. If comedians are able to hit folks’ funny bones with their jokes, why can’t musicians also strike heart bones? If this analogy is a medical plausibility, Christoffel has the skill it takes to touch the heart bone on a consistent basis.
Folk rock is the easiest genre categorization to put Don’t Ask into, although ‘70s soft rock is probably a more accurate designation. Christoffel sounds a lot like Dash Crofts (of Seals and Crofts), which may be the reason why ‘70s soft rock comes to mind so often while listening to Nothing. The lovely “Creeks Run Dry” features an electric guitar solo, yet it is not the sort of loud and obnoxious soloing you most often hear in heavy metal songs. Instead, it’s both tasteful and tight. The song also features a loving lyric about always being there for someone else, even when the chips are down. This could be a song about friendship, or it may be romantic. Whatever the case, it describes true and lasting love extremely well. Their harmonic vocal skills are showcased during “My Heart Is Taken.” When Christoffel sings, “Our hearts beat like one heart all through the night,” it may bring back memories of John Denver songs, as well as hearkening back to about 100 other folk songs by Peter, Paul & Mary and the like. The tune’s melody just reaches out and commandeers your emotions and will not let go.
The “Eye Of The Storm,” with its complicated acoustic musical parts, mixes folk-rock along with progressive rock. Its lyric warns about the dangers of sailing rough seas. And while “Sailing on the Moment” isn’t specifically about sailing, its title alone suggests that these musicians must have a thing for the aquatic lifestyle. The most touching moment of this recorded work arrives with the track “Dream Away.” Christoffel sings it to a sparse instrumental arrangement. This song once again has one of those heart-tugging arrangements that draw you into its space, much like a roaring fireplace in a living room on the coldest night of the year. In between the verses, a sprightly plucked acoustic guitar enters the mix front and center, and then leaves quietly before the vocal begin again.
Don’t Ask makes music that is oh so easy to warm up to. Even if you’re not paying attention to the words, the group’s melodies and arrangements still have great power to hook you. Today’s crazy music world sometimes has more to do with marketing than the music itself. And that’s a shame because much fine music is overlooked simply because it may not look exactly like everything else. Don’t Ask creates delightful sounds for those that focus more of their attention on the listening part, rather than just merely the looking. The best chance they’ll have at commercial success is if word of mouth becomes its primary marketing tool. Don’t ask the guys in Don’t Ask what kind of music they play. But, by all means, please tell somebody about it.
Review by Dan MacIntosh
Rating: 3 Stars (out of 5)
Artist: Don't Ask
Album Title: Nothing
Review by Kevin Mathews
The current retro-folk scene in the United Kingdom is in full bloom with young bands/artists like Mumford & Sons, Laura Marling, Stornoway, and Bombay Bicycle Band receiving critical acclaim and commercial success. Across the Atlantic, the alt-country “No Depression” movement has been in evidence since the 1990s with Wilco, Son Volt and Whiskeytown. However, a return to folk roots has been less obvious within the alternative rock circles, which is why Nothing by Don't Ask comes as a startling discovery. Remaining consistently faithful to old school folk-pop of the 1970s, (ala Crosby Stills & Nash) without any tinge of any country flavoring thrown in, Don't Ask does a bang up job in finding enough different nuances in the folk-pop genre to assemble an intriguing collection of tunes that maintains listener interest throughout its fourteen tracks.
Ironically, the first three songs do not really do the album justice and are probably the weakest links in Nothing. There's precious little in the opening title track, "Creeks Run Dry" and "Seattle Day" to suggest that there's anything remotely special about Nothing. To be fair, there is a precocious infectiousness about "Nothing.” The trouble with "Creeks Run Dry" is a cliché and derivative melody, whilst "Seattle Day" has the annoying (and unnecessary) device of the backing vocals echoing every line of the chorus. Thankfully, Don't Ask gets down to business after these low points and begin to display its promise and potential in well crafted folk-pop that recalls the best of Paul Simon, James Taylor, Bruce Cockburn and Dan Fogelberg. Instrumentation and arrangements are kept to a tasteful minimum in order for the tunes, vocal melody and harmonies to resonate. As old school sentiments dictate, sparkling lead guitar fills enliven proceedings and take the already solid songs a notch higher.
The rest of Nothing can more or less be divided into two broad categories. First, the slow heartfelt folk ballads like "My Heart Is Taken," "Dream Away," "The Still Heart Believes," "The Cold Star Stares," and "My Memories," where within a stripped down context the emotional weight is given to lyrics sung from the heart. "Hang on, hold on, you're not alone…" ("My Heart Is Taken"), "Close your eyes, imagine that's how dreams are made…" ("Dream Away"), "To practice a dream, will capture a dream, to fracture a dream's daunting…" ("The Still Heart Believes"), "Oh, she barely even made it, she almost nearly died, and the polio gripped her and it held her crucified…" ("The Cold Star Stares") and "and my memories will fly on silken wings, and my memories talk of treasured thing…" (My Memories) go some choice couplets.
On the other half of the equation, Don't Ask provides upbeat material that will have listeners toe tapping and singing along, even if not completely dancing. There's the bright and catchy "Doubt," the old English folk flavored "Eye of the Storm," the rock-infused electric guitar-driven "Real Love," the jazzy "How Could I Know," and the midtempo folk-rocking "No One Said Love Was Easy" to provide the counterpoint to keep this album balanced.
Throughout Nothing, Don't Ask maintains high standards of performance, nothing particularly spectacular or showy but just enough to serve the purposes of the individual songs. Everything is in its rightful place, as it should be with the result being a satisfying contribution to the folk-pop canon.
Review by Kevin Mathews
Rating: 4 Stars (out of 5)
Artist: Don’t Ask
Album: Nothing
Review by Nick DeRiso
Seattle-based folk-rockers Don’t Ask have a fondness for the comfy sounds of 1970s pop, though they are careful not to get too caught up in nostalgia. They simply use that era’s singer-songwriter-inspired prose, its soaring symphonic pop structure and its feel-good ethos as a springboard. In fact, the album-closing “My Memories” might have made a better title track, since its writerly notions of rebirth through fond backward glances so perfectly fit the tone of Nothing.
Chicago-born Todd Christoffel is impressively versatile, employing singing styles that span the decade, even as New Orleans native Crispin Faget updates the template with guitar aphorisms that expertly meld folk, rock and the expected pop sensibilities. The record begins with the title track, and a conversational singing approach from Christoffel that recalls Warren Zevon. Faget then encircles a Seals and Crofts-inflected chorus with this comfy riff right out of Bob Welch’s “Ebony Eyes.” There is, in fact, as much that is familiar about Nothing, as there is new. “How Could I Know” is a Hollies-sounding piece of power pop. “The Voice Still Believes” recalls Paul Simon’s erudite inspirational odes of the era.
Yet, Don’t Ask consistently lives up to its name, which was inspired by a persistent question: What kind of music do you play? Answer: A little bit of everything. “Real Love” begins with a foreboding guitar signature, signaling its intention to frankly examine the complications and lasting joys of passion’s bond. A wordless opening vocal ends up saying more than lyrics ever could, as Faget touches on a spectacular range of emotions at the guitar. Then Don’t Ask returns to the muscular folk-rock hinted at in the song’s opening, brilliantly switching into a crackling groove that allows Christoffel to explore a tougher cadence. It’s a terrific example of the symbiotic relationship that belies this duo’s long tenure together. Christoffel and Faget met almost two decades ago, forming the group String Theory. They became Don’t Ask when drummer Doug Aslin joined.
Together, they bring an agile, jangling groove to “No One Said Love Was Easy,” imbuing it with a sun-drenched optimism that’s in direct contrast to the difficult times that must have inspired the lyric. Meanwhile, a tender sadness embraces “The Cold Stars Dance,” a song about a child battling the withering effects of polio. When Christoffel falls into a whisper, as if wishing someone goodnight, it’s a heartbreaking blow. On “Creeks Run Dry,” Faget unleashes a feline Santana-ish guitar structure amid a series of suggestive flourishes of percussion. Other times, he displays a deep regard for the Anglophile blues of Eric Clapton and John Mayall. Yet he’s also capable of a more formal approach, as on “Seattle Day” where Christoffel paints a note-perfect description of a dreary afternoon with simply constructed lyrics set amid lonely, interlocking harmonies.
“Sailing on the Moment” seems to settle into the melancholy singer-songwriter atmospherics of Michael Martin Murphey’s “Wildfire,” but Don’t Ask keeps stirring the pot. Before the song is over, they’ve added soaring Wings-era McCartney-inspired harmonies atop an old-time folk stoicism, as well.
No matter how far afield Don’t Ask seems to go, a homecoming back to wide lapels and shag carpeting is never far away. “Doubt” boasts the shiny optimism of Loggins and Messina, but with a modern pop propulsion courtesy of Aslin. While often the portrait of understatement, here he happily bashes away. Christoffel employs a Jim Croce-like fragility on “My Heart is Taken,” setting the stage for a sweeping, sweetly romantic harmony with Faget. Similarly, “Dream Away,” sung with the honeyed delicacy of the Band’s Rick Danko, builds into a swirling, appropriately atmospheric chorus. “Eye of the Storm,” however, is anything but. The song comes thundering out with a rumbling authority, as Faget and Aslin set the stage for a story of shipping tragedy in the style of Gordon Lightfoot’s “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” only with a sea-shanty swagger.
On the definitive closing track, Christoffel deftly connects these many strands, sewing together a varied set of ’70 styles with his own inspiring new musings, when he open-heartedly sings, “My memories are sights and sounds that still surround and talk of many things/I am old, and I am young.”
So is Nothing.
Review by Nick DeRiso
Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)