Tim Turner Reviews Michael Frazier's 'Passing Away'

This is good stuff. Performance shines bright!
Vocals are clear and concise. It's played with great conviction, confidence and feelings and is captured in this live sounding recording. This is a straight up performance placing the performer as if they were right in front of you.
I know you do all your own recording and that's even more impressive to play the performance and then to capture it in the recording.
This song has punch, right in your face and with an acoustic guitar!
Intro guitar work is excellent. This song as it stands will be very successful and no doubt will be listened to and downloaded all over the place, that's my prediction.
The recording so captures the story you tell and even at high volume it holds up very well.
These are great lyrics and it's backed up by an even greater performance.
With the line like ' cause it's hard sometimes to be human the world keeps getting in the way'
Profound, true and sad all in one. Another thing you did by taking a lot of thought I am sure to convey this feeling to us in the way where we are in someone elses shoes what would we feel like..brilliant and successful!
I am moved and hope this song is accepted with open arms because it's one of the best I have ever heard anywhere.

Hello my friend,
I would be honored to comment on your works.

Spirits - The natural resonance of the acoustic guitar is showcased in this song called Spirit. I found myself jammin with you in my mind. The melody is intoxicating, the lyrics are original and fit so very well with the melody.
The water effects are ok and can be left in the mix but I also imagined the song without them and feel it could carry over well without the affects. Not sure the effects are adding that much to the overall package, besides you have that really cool flute being masterfully interwoven through the melody.
The vocals sound clean and pretty smooth throughout. I paid close attention to the vocals numerous times and the song actually got better. It wasn't you that changed, it was how I was listening to the song. I stick though with my water effects theory.

Hey Michael!

First off... Amazing lyrics... very thought provoking with a steady rhythm, while staying true the the rhyming scheme. Lyrics are difficult to write, and these are very solid. Your guitar work is wonderful! I really like the intro, instrumental breaks, and outro, where there is almost a solo over the top, very nice effect! Your vocals are great, they're in tune the whole time, good articulation, and the vocal harmonies are right on too! I feel this song more than I do most, its really thought provoking, which makes it very enjoyable to listen to even multiple times! The percussion is very subtle in the background, you could maybe bring those congas/bongos out just a little but not much, its just a little hard to distinguish them at times, but they are a perfect fit to the song. I've found it difficult to find something wrong with your song, its an excellent track, and I enjoyed listening to it thoroughly! Great work, and I think I'll add it to my acoustic station too!

Hey Michael, heres a review for ya...

I like the way the recording sounds. It has a real live and down to earth feel. It sounds like you used a mic on the guitar instead of plugging it in, or maybe you plugged it in and your vocal mic was picking up the natural ora of the guitar. In other words, you can here a little fret noise and the guitar sounds like its right in the room. Sometimes plugging in the guitar makes it sound artifical. The mix is very well balanced, not to much guitar, which is good cause you don't want to over power the vocals like I do sometimes. The back-up vocals are perfect as well.... they are there, but subtly. The only thing that confuses me, is, are you beating on the guitar or are those bongo drums? Either way, that could be a little louder. But, it sounds like its a live recording so I'm not going to dock any points for that one. I'm not docking any points at all, you get my 5 note rating! You get such an honorable rating because the lyrics are also very well written. Very good job talking about the vet on the street with the sign, with the dozen cars all lined up, with everybody trying to pretend that they don't see him... I can picture that scene perfectly in my head. Thank You for writing a song like this, it makes you think.
Billy's Rating: 5 notes!

Mike-

Your music is great and inspiring, and makes you dance and smile. I listened to hullabaloo. The guitar is lively and the pipe screams CHANGE as you pound out this political battle cry! Homeless, Abortion, all sad/touchy subjects, and you pulled it off extremely well, and the quality is pretty damn good as well! You are the man!

Hi Michael...Free and Flying!
Michael creates a huge landscape with his guitar and voice. So many subtle nuances. Free and flying opens with a lone guitarist on his porch feeling. Beautiful, heartfelt licks opens to a voice that has much truth to it and an almost uncertain quality unsure if he wants to share his message with us. the opening line comes in soft and under cover of his guitar,"Can't afford to kill the time." Throughout the song we are given insightful words, a guitar that to this reviewer speaks like an old robert frost poem, one lick compliments the next and the next creating as i'd like to call the unspoken words of the guitar playing that michael brings to the table everytime...Once again You got the stuff michael and I had already put this one on my radio station! Shawn

PS I have one spot I would have added somethin'
at around :45 when you say,"so much left to learn" I thought it would be cool to repeat it almost in a whisper.

Michal Frazier-
Into the Fire (Pursuit of KNA Version) Good melodic track. The acoustic is very steady and lays well against the piano and the bass. The vocal has a good desperation to it, and helps to sell the song to the listener. The lyrics are concise and stay on-topic well. Tells a good story and avoids all the cheese that usually comes with songs like this.

As far as what I think it could do with, maybe some percussion, not so much right off the bat, but maybe after the first chorus. The song has an easyflow to it and it never jumps time, but after a minute and a half, it starts to sound a little stiff, to me at least.

I mean everything is played well and there are no real gaffs to speak of, its just that the melody is so ambient and dependent on the lyrical interpay, that it loses its own identity pretty fast. It just becomes the soundtrack to the lyrics, and while that's good for some songs, this one needs a little more punch to it for dramatic impact.

Its a good song as it stands right now, but it could be a great one with a tad more spice to the arrangement. A good subtle slide guitar pass would do wonders in my opinion.

Ok then. This is the first time I've ever laid ears on this artist. This genre alone is interesting enough, since it will let you know right from frim the start, if the artist is talented or not. I've listened to other songs in the Acoustic Genre, which really were not entirely mere acoustics and vocals.

This one, however is!

Right from the opening, you will have to agree with me that this is some great guitar work to start that song with. The vocals set in - pretty good voice! The lyrics are great. All in all - I am loving this, as I started out as an acoustic musician myself (might actually have to try to record something sometime soon within this genre )

Ok, Michael ... you're getting a very short review here. Tell ya why:

- this song is musically very entertaining (only 3:29 minutes - seemed more like 2 minutes)
- the composition (and the way the tracks for the guitars have been recorded) is excellent
- Overall great production/mixing work.

There you have it ... like it or hate it, but that's all I'm gonna write about this one. If the listeners out there will take a few minutes, they will know that any more words would be a waste of time.

This song is a very good one!!!!

Way to go, Michael!!!   

Happy Holidays and Peace on Earth