Debut Album Recalls Tom Waits, Mike Bloomfield, Michael Hurley
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Since the 2007 release of his genre-blending debut album "No Return From Snockville," New Hampshire-based musician Billy Sharff has been called "an artist well worth watching" (Boston's The Noise) with a "great rock voice" (Taxi A&R Company). "Snockville" combines folk, blues, rock, and a hint of jazz to deliver original songs that are "well-written and full of keen insights"
(Boston's The Noise).
"Snockville" is the culmination of months of work by musician Billy Sharff, who crafted each song independently by layering his performance of more than ten instruments with his distinctive and diverse vocal styles. The Noise noted that Sharff is "a skilled instrumentalist whose capability for creating soundscapes is unquestionable." Sharff is a self-taught musician, as well as a self-taught luthier, building some of his stringed instruments himself.
"Snockville" opens with the powerful rock song "I'm Dead," equipped with hard-hitting vocals backed by violins, a saxophone, and an elusive guitar line that, as Stephanie Lewis of Shut Eye Records wrote, "made the hair on the back of my neck stand up." Francis DiMenno noted further on "Snockville" in his review for The Noise, Boston's rock magazine:
"There are some beautiful ballads here, particularly the agonized hard-luck tale 'Four Years' and the fiddle-backed, searing but winsome 'Jenny'… the morbid 'Song to Sing When Feeling Blue,' the gritty low-down blues of 'Lines and Rocks,' the aptly titled 'Strangest Kind of Blues,' and the exuberant pick hit 'You'd Look Good With a Pipe.' On these in particular, he seldom puts a foot wrong or strikes a false note. The elegiac tone of the final track, 'The End of the Road,' perhaps exemplifies best the insinuating nature of his most resonant numbers. If 'Snockville' is a reference to the legendary Michael Hurley, the comparison is apt."
Billy Sharff is currently touring with the Boston-based gypsy-rock band Pariah Beat, and will be playing throughout New England and New York over the summer and fall of 2007.
"No Return From Snockville" is available directly from Sharff's website, www.bsharff.com, through iTunes, CD Baby, and at any Borders Bookstore.
Contact Details:
Billy Sharff, 756 Rt. 12a, Cornish, NH, 03745, www.bsharff.com, bsharff@gmail.com, 603-477-9669.
"Snockville" opens with the powerful rock song "I'm Dead," equipped with hard-hitting vocals backed by violins, a saxophone, and an elusive guitar line that, as Stephanie Lewis of Shut Eye Records wrote, "made the hair on the back of my neck stand up." Francis DiMenno noted further on "Snockville" in his review for The Noise, Boston's rock magazine:
"There are some beautiful ballads here, particularly the agonized hard-luck tale 'Four Years' and the fiddle-backed, searing but winsome 'Jenny'… the morbid 'Song to Sing When Feeling Blue,' the gritty low-down blues of 'Lines and Rocks,' the aptly titled 'Strangest Kind of Blues,' and the exuberant pick hit 'You'd Look Good With a Pipe.' On these in particular, he seldom puts a foot wrong or strikes a false note. The elegiac tone of the final track, 'The End of the Road,' perhaps exemplifies best the insinuating nature of his most resonant numbers. If 'Snockville' is a reference to the legendary Michael Hurley, the comparison is apt."
Billy Sharff is currently touring with the Boston-based gypsy-rock band Pariah Beat, and will be playing throughout New England and New York over the summer and fall of 2007.
"No Return From Snockville" is available directly from Sharff's website, www.bsharff.com, through iTunes, CD Baby, and at any Borders Bookstore.
Contact Details:
Billy Sharff, 756 Rt. 12a, Cornish, NH, 03745, www.bsharff.com, bsharff@gmail.com, 603-477-9669.
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