There is surely no lack of singer-songwriters around at the moment, with quite a few of them delivering some truly excellent music.
Yet, in a situation where there is so much music directly available to listeners, particularly through streaming, it it much harder to attract the attention, even the of big fans of the genre.
Hopefully, Austin, Texas musician, multi-instrumentalist, composer, performer, and technologist Bill Godfrey and his most recent EP Hypnotized will get the attention it deserves.
Godfrey takes probably the most used route by singer-songwriters: putting at the forefront his vocals and acoustic guitar with just some additional arrangements where needed, like on the excellent title track.
This is quite a hard route to take, as your vocals (and lyrics) as well as your songwriting and guitar technique have to shine, yet with Godfrey, all of these do. He has a good voice, and his guitar technique is up and above the standard. At the same time, his songwriting is of a very high quality (check out “Patiently”), and his lyrics deal with an exploration of how the mind seeks influence, leading to all manner of trouble.
Throughout, Godfrey injects enough individuality to pick his music up above what is considered as a singer-songwriter standard fare.
