Even after five albums and two EP’s and some rave reviews, for a wider audience, Filipino-American artist Fred Abong seems to not be a fully discovered pleasure yet. Maybe one of the reasons for that is the fact that Abong spent nearly a decade immersed in academia, completing a Ph.D. in Humanities and working as an adjunct professor in the Religious Studies, Philosophy, and English Departments at various universities. Yellowthroat, his sixth album can hopefully change that.
Firstly, Abong has an endearing baritone voice that can handle anything he throws at it, and he certainly does exactly that here. Abong’s songwriting is an intriguing mix of styles that ranges across the board, from Ellion Smith-like singer-songwriting style to, the subtle jazzy style of Sea & Cake to the more ramshackle melodic output of The Replacements, with obvious references to even bigger names like Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan.
And it all perfectly fits in, as Abong seems confident with all and any of the musical styles he references here.
“When I wrote Yellowthroat, I was (and still am, honestly) in a very romantic way. Of course, love and romance are impossible to straightforwardly convey, but I chose the straightforwardly romantic classical guitar as the primary instrument for the record, nonetheless. I grew up hearing my older siblings playing it around the house, and at an early age fell in love with its inherent drama and melancholy,” says Fred Abong.
Whatever the case is, with Yellowthroat Abong has come with a very intriguing collection of left-field music that begs to be heard.
