Fans: 359
On Promenade: The new full length record is out now (Oct 2007)! co-released by Spune (Comet, LaMonica, Wall of Sound Festival) and Velvet Blue Music (Richard Swift, Viva Voce, LN, Lassie Foundation, Denison Witmer).
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ContactMusic.com
On Promenade, Album Review
Doug Burr is a singer-songwriter in the Springsteen style - songs come out fully formed and ready for some full band attention, but with an intimacy that engages deeply. From Denton, Texas, (home of Centro-matic) Burr's voice and style is closer to Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, but it is hard to overstate how lush and gorgeous this man's songs are - there isn't an attempt to overemote, no odd falsetto. Instead, like the early Lyle Lovett albums (think If I Had A Boat), these songs seem like classics, destined for endless covers by less talented writers.
Songs like "How Can The Lark" and "Should've Known" lick deliciously at dark places - Nick Cave with a gentle touch. Burr relies on great songs, not on gimmicks, and pulls on literate wit and poetry to generate the intimate ache that drives the record. There is clearly something in the water in Denton - that town has produced two of the best records of the past 12 months. Rating 9/10
-Mike Rea
LINK: http://www.contactmusic.com/new/home.nsf/albumreview/dougburrx29x04x08
Paste Magazine
One of Paste's Four-to-Watch bands, Feb 2008 issue: The South Rises Again by David Meade
...Exquisitely detailed, slow and deliberate, his songs have as much in common with the literature of Eudora Welty and Cormac McCarthy as with the work of the Americana dimmerati to whom he is often, and somewhat shortsightedly, compared...
...On Promenade is a further elaboration on these themes of birth, death and renewal. The album has a uniquely human cadence to it, beginning with the quietly vesperal "Slow Southern Home" before patiently building into the quickened heartbeat of "In the Garden." The cycle ends with a trio of songs capped by the gorgeous "Blood Runs Downhill," a kind of eulogy for the rest of the album, part gospel, part Alex Chilton at his most ethereal...
LINK: http://www.pastemagazine.com/action/article/6329/department/music/4_to_watch_doug_burr
Dallas Morning News
FOLK MUSIC: Denton singer Doug Burr's growth follows a musical timeline by Hunter Hauk
Doug Burr's On Promenade is one of those rare albums you can enjoy from start to finish, with no skipping. All of the tunes achieve a comfortable balance between traditional country and folk. They come from the mind of a 35-year-old Denton singer who claims he didn't start listening to "good music" until he was in his 20s...
LINK: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/stories/DN-dougburr_0117gl.ART.State.Edition1.376071d.html
Denton Record Chronicle
Denton musician Doug Burr's On Promenade is a sort of concept album that chases the darkness with a shot of light and faith. ... On Promenade evolved from Burr’s ruminations on Greil Marcus’ Mystery Train, a book about rock ’n’ roll that follows the career arcs of Robert Johnson, Elvis Presley, the Band and Sly Stone — all against a bigger cultural backdrop. The album also grew out of about four years of songwriting.
When you take your first crack at listening to the album, it seems like you’re following a flawed protagonist through his heroic journey, and heroic journeys are never easy. It’s a rustic album that is nudged along gently, both by Burr’s poetry and expert work by his collaborators.
Burr’s voice is neither trained nor polished, but that’s hardly a liability. At times, he recalls Neil Young but with more vocal dynamics and a lot less of Young’s tinny edge. ...
— Lucinda Breeding
LINK: http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/drc/entertainment/stories/drc_burr_1216.203694bc.html
Austin Chronicle
SXSW Saturday Sleeper - Doug Burr’s songs liquidate complex visions of mortality with steely resolution, the Denton native’s detailed, literate narratives emerging in sympathetic acoustic strains. Inspired by Greil Marcus’ Mystery Train, On Promenade broods with the causticness of Will Johnson with touches of Jeff Tweedy and Neil Young.
- Austin Chronicle LINK: http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/print?oid=601893
Americana UK
Texan troubadour unleashes slow burner
Doug Burr appears to be one of the select few lucky songwriters who possess a fully formed realisation of how to write, record and present their songs to perfection. On this release, Burr has combined his influences to record eleven songs of shimmering majesty. At times one can hear a Wilco or Bright Eyes influence but Burr’s songs are so much more than the sum of their influences.
The album kicks off with two short but beautiful songs ("Slow Southern Songs" and "Come to my Senses") before hitting its stride (a stride it never breaks) with the epic beauty of "Graniteville" and "Whippoorwill". Burr shares an intrinsic knowledge of song dynamics with the likes of Jeff Tweedy, and has a voice that tugs at the heart strings. Across it’s eleven tracks ’On Promenade" doesn’t have a single duffer.
Doug Burr has released a late contender for my album of the year, and if there is any justice in the world (we all know there isn’t!), Burr will crash the mainstream in 2008 selling millions of albums in the process. As far as I can see, Burr’s only problem now lies in how he is going to follow ’On Promenade’.
Brilliant! — Dan Wilkinson
Reviewers Rating: 10 out of 10
LINK: http://www.americana-uk.com/auk/modules.php?op=modload&name=Reviews&file=index&req=showcontent&id=3341
Modern Luxury Dallas
ON PROMENADE Singer/songwriter Doug Burr’s new album perambulates human experience, drawing on the mystery of the South, apocalyptic evocations, and even Van Gogh’s letters by Steve Carter
From the very opening strains of Doug Burr’s latest album, On Promenade, the scene is set, the atmosphere painted. "I lay awake for a night/Drenched in anguish and bright light/I dreamt about an ancient house/And a slow Southern home," the songwriter intones in a hushed drawl of mid-tempo confession in "Slow Southern Home." After the lyrics wind around the trellis of a lone acoustic guitar for half a verse, an electric enters on the tonic chord and sets up a chiming drone of a bed that holds stubbornly through the song, impervious to the changes. Drums, bass, more guitars, and Wurlitzer make entrances before a Neil Young-esque harmonica yowls into center. Starkly inevitable, the subtly-chiseled arrangement evokes time, place and memory, a musical kudzu overtaking and shaping a deceptively simple structure.
Fort Worth Weekly
On Promenade (Spune/Velvet Blue Music)>
Denton singer-songwriter Doug Burr deserves international success, but in the meantime he may consider grief counseling. On Promenade, a joint release by national indie label Velvet Blue Music and local production company Spune, is easily one of the most mournful, uncomfortably intimate releases of the year. Let’s just hope Burr awakens every morning to sunshine and bluebirds and reserves his beautifully authentic ache for his music.
To be sure, there’s nothing maudlin or morbid about the 11 tunes on his sophomore album, co-produced with a gossamer gentleness by Burr, Britton Beisenherz (Deadman, Milton Mapes), and Todd Pertll (Deadman, Thrift Store Cowboys) — the tracks ripple sweetly and serenely through your head. But if you listen closely to Burr’s homiletic lyrics delivered with such hushed earnestness, you realize someone’s drowning in the undertow. The songs mostly forsake the more overt (if nondenominational) sermonizing that characterized the gospel elements of Burr’s debut, The Sickle & The Sheaves. The opener here, "Slow Southern Home," finds the troubadour "drenched in anguish and bright light," which pretty much sums up the dimly twinkling mix of steel pedal, fiddle, accordion, and banjo that flickers throughout the CD. Burr revives Hank Williams’ lonesome "Whippoorwill" but with a twist; Burr’s bird returns to "wake you up and tuck you in," even though the singer, his voice cracking like Neil Young’s, covets the animal’s instinctive, irrepressible will to lift its voice to the sky. The devil and an approaching flood gild the Southern Gothic vibe of "Thing About Trouble," arguably the album’s most succinct statement on the idea of salvation through sin. The deathbed murmur of the closer, "Blood Runs Downhill," evokes the odd sensation of a man expressing despair and comforting himself in the same breath.
If you want a bracingly melancholic antidote to the season’s plastic cheer, On Promenade is your CD.
— Jimmy Fowler
LINK: http://www.fwweekly.com/content.asp?article=6553
Fort Worth Star Telegram
A masterful ’Promenade’
You won’t hear an earthier, more gripping record this year than Doug Burr’s On Promenade. The Denton singer/songwriter’s work evokes such distinctive voices as Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, Red House Painters’ Mark Kozelek and a bit of former Toad the Wet Sprocket vocalist Glen Phillips. This is Burr’s second full-length album, following 2003’s gospel-tinged The Sickle & the Sheaves. His warm, inviting compositions are effortlessly beautiful and encourage multiple listens. One of 2007’s finest local discs.
— Preston Jones, Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Babysue.com
Doug Burr - On Promenade (CD, Velvet Blue Music, Pop)
Doug Burr is a refreshing new voice in the world of music. Our guess is that On Promenade will end up on a lot of "best of" lists for 2007. Burr writes and records soft, melodic, pensive pop music that incorporates elements of American folk and classic pop...and there is a slight Irish flavor in some of his songs. On the first spin you might mistake Promenade for any other twenty-first century soft pop album. But on the fifth or sixth listen...the substance and genuine spirit of the music begins to shine through. These songs have a nice warm organic sound and Doug’s super subtle vocals are exactly perfect for the style of songs he writes. The more we spin this album...the more impressed we are. Wonderfully sincere tracks include "Slow Southern Home," "Graniteville," "Thing About Trouble" and "Blood Runs Downhill" (easily one of the most beautiful songs we have heard this year). This is an album that is bound to stand the test of time. Highly recommended.
(Rating: 5++)"
LINK: http://www.babysue.com/2007-Nov-LMNOP-Reviews.html
TheBlackandWhiteMag.com
Rating: 9.2
Doug Burr’s On Promenade is Velvet Blue’s most important release since Conquest Slaughter by Frank Lenz. Described by label owner J. Cloud as "...a new twangy version of LN’s Novel", this statement rings true for a number of reasons. But perhaps Burr shares most in common with Other Desert Cities, as the country influences aren’t exactly sutble. 11 gorgeous tracks long, On Promenade is first and foremost a sprawling and layered record; the kind that would find a comfortable home beside any warm Lost Highway LP. Burr’s excellent balladry showcases soft harmony, and brilliantly understated twists within his songwriting landscape. The most refreshing and distinctive characteristic of Burr’s approach is that On Promenade doesn’t feel like a nod to the hipster alt-country fad that worships Wilco and Ryan Adams. "Graniteville" is the song that hits me the hardest, with quiet strings lurking in the background as Burr’s voice remains distant for the song’s first half. Then the dynamic changes and Burr leads the charge with an emotive elegance that numbs me every time. Guitars never quite drone (with the exception of the chilling "In The Garden") yet an intelligent wall-of-sound reverberates in Burr’s dark and moody atmosphere. After repeated listens, it’s safe to say that On Promenade is unlike any album to emerge in recent time, and no doubt it will stand as one of the most important releases of 2007. The contrast between warmth and dark melancholy is at war here, and the result is an epic draw.
