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Put your hands on the remote! browse music »The Storyteller by Tim M. Otto
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fave it Traditional Folk | Country Folk
10 tracks | 31 minutes
Released Feb 2005
on Almost Paradise Music
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- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:40 Fresh Faced Kid lyrics BUY MP3 02:40 Fresh Faced Kid lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:40 Fresh Faced Kid
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:35 All The Sorrows Of The World lyrics BUY MP3 03:35 All The Sorrows Of The World lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:35 All The Sorrows Of The World
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:01 She Could Break Horses lyrics BUY MP3 03:01 She Could Break Horses lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:01 She Could Break Horses
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:41 Just Like Tom Joad lyrics BUY MP3 02:41 Just Like Tom Joad lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:41 Just Like Tom Joad
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:43 She Got The Best Of Me lyrics BUY MP3 03:43 She Got The Best Of Me lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:43 She Got The Best Of Me
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:47 A Sadness In Your Soul lyrics FREE 02:47 A Sadness In Your Soul lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:47 A Sadness In Your Soul
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:53 2-Guys You've Never Heard Of lyrics BUY MP3 02:53 2-Guys You've Never Heard Of lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:53 2-Guys You've Never Heard Of
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:07 Coca-cola Dave lyrics BUY MP3 03:07 Coca-cola Dave lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:07 Coca-cola Dave
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:36 I Travel Light, Travel Fast lyrics BUY MP3 03:36 I Travel Light, Travel Fast lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:36 I Travel Light, Travel Fast
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:32 Whatever Happened To Old Lefty lyrics BUY MP3 03:32 Whatever Happened To Old Lefty lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:32 Whatever Happened To Old Lefty
Troubadour style folk
Bio / Background
This story of tribute to membership in the Guild of Songwriting is visually told on the cover: Tim on a bicycle with guitar slung on his back, riding away from the viewer. The image is one of anti-cool: he's showing the world he owns a bicycle and a guitar and is generous enough to make a visual gesture of defiance against contemporary soul-coldness at his own expense. He rides away from yesterday, a subject haunting his songs.
The ten songs are held together by a tone of sad charm, sung slowly, produced cleanly, sung in a story-telling way. Harmonica accompanies most of the songs, creating a fusion of feeling blending Springeteen's Nebraska with the 'she done me wrong' stance of George Jones, but with the literate humor Otto requires of himself.
The stories? To be a fair listener, you have to know a story-sketch of Otto's own history...he did hit the big time ...almost, recording his songs with Norman Petty, Buddy Holly's famous producer in Clovis, New Mexico.
↓ more ↓The young man Tim Otto was discovered by Petty just before his sudden death. Otto isn't being grandiose in his sadness, good to remember since tragedy is often reserved for the famous.
Fresh Faced Kid sets the CD's plaintive tone, a plaintiff in the court of The Blues, recalling the potential that kids are so rich in.
All The Sorrows Of The World is a compassion song that makes me think of the way children are sad when crying, revisiting all other sad things and aware of the world full of endless sadness. This great and overwhelming sadness, though not cheering you up it...keeps you company.
She Could Break Horses is Otto at his best in creating a lyrical and musical syncopation. Starting with a clip-clop rhythm, the words and music tell the story of 'She.'
She Got The Best Of Me has such a good hook, "Old memories left me nothin' but alone" - it tips the listener off to the cathartic hopes of this collection - by sharing the old memories, Otto is telling stories, implying a listener, inviting the listener into his world, recasting aloneness into shared human sadness. This song is a classic, with a line that cracks me up..."You don't have to be a Genius to see she got the best of me" that sort of pokes country music's 'she-villain' genre in the ribs.
A Sadness In Your Soul is my favorite song in this collection. It's beautiful melody, longing, looking back and forward at once with equal nostalgia for something lost, not to be found. It's got a clean, pretty sound, honest, and in a culture that teaches us to take anti-depressants...that something is wrong with sadness...it's very sweet to be told, "I loved your sadness best and miss it most."
2-Guys...if I'm not mistaken, "Folkie" is the term folk musicians used for themselves in the 70s and early 80s before Folk Music disappeared from pop culture. "Folk" implies plebeian folk, you know - 'folks', the common people. If you weren't around back then, you may never have known a time when genuine commonness was sung about from the heart and was the center of popular youth culture.
Coca-cola Dave slowly rocks, slowly rolls back in unapologetic memories of sunshine and good times and sort of underscores this kind of songwriting.
I Travel Light, Travel Fast is not meant to convince the listener that he's better off alone, and after all - he's not alone, he's hanging out with all the musicians he's learned from, who he gives tribute to the way a Baseball Fan is not alone when talking about Babe Ruth or Lou Gehrig.
Old Lefty tells a true story Otto learned about while living in New Mexico and shows off his gift for language, of stringing words together in a way that was strong before the days of e-mail.
Really, it's not so much that Tim Otto asks for in The Storyteller, someone to share by listening to the longing for past sadness still set in the days of future unfurled potential, hanging out with a girl who might surprise you and stay true.
By Melanie Eddy Robinson February, 2005 Disc Jockey
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