DONALD McCREA

FEEDBACK FROM INTERNET FANS

Great tune...puts you on the road!
Yeah, drums come out kickin and then...tuba? Are you kiddin me? But wait, I like it, I like it. Bass support, then enter banjo to establish the rhythm framework. Acoustic Guitar comes in to fill and we are on the road. Take me for a ride. Well done boys!
Enter the vocals, our feet are tappin by now and with the platform laid the story unfolds. Perfect tone and delivery by an obviously seasoned song man. Again great job with great lyrics too.
May I interject here for a moment to say...this is stellar country blues tune, top drawer country rock song, funky in your face bluegrass piece, take your pick...
And how about that takeout! Distortion on the horns...you guys never cease to amaze on this one, and I would buy an album on the if come, just based on this tune alone. Impressive writing skills on display here. A five star production to boot.
- roadhouserock
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

New Orleans here I come!
I'm back in New Orleans. I'm surrounded by people from everywhere, drinking and having a ball. This song puts me in a happy place.
- waltei
April 11th, 2006

catchy
nice tuba and banjo combo. i wasn't aware they went together so well. this song is super catchy. reminds me of oh brother, where art thou? the vocals have a lot of character and the beat and melody are really catchy.
- CraZyPickleZ
Edmonton, Alberta
April 5th, 2006

Having Hoo Doo Ball
I can honestly say that this is probably the most original piece of music that I've heard so far here at GARAGEBAND.
- whitebear
Crickhowell, Wales, United Kingdom

trombone
nice surprise that ,good song singer has a good voice nice backing vocal and the banjo keeps things chuggin' along nicely ,absolute delight is the brass solo love it, gettin' further into the song and realising that this is very slick indeed ,you have some lovely frills goin on ,slide guitar was great ,production was major league, you are all longstanding seasoned players and it shows , good luck with this one sure you wont need it.
- denniscoultas
Alton, Staffordshire, United Kingdom

Nice riffs!
I love the trombone and banjo riffs. The lyrics are wonderful and vocals are nice to listen to. This is going on my playlist and I will buy your CD any day. So unique and original, you can't go wrong with this sound! I hear that bluegrass, I can't get enough of it. Nice horn solo too, nice to hear horns for a change!!!
- Lauricia
March 30th, 2006

second line cash
Wow, don't hear the tuba (euphonium?) very often...gives it a second line sound fo' sho. This is like johnny cash meets rebirth brass band. nice production...great use of background voices.
this would be a hit in the treme (or what's left of it)...
- Rsanborn
Portland, Oregon
March 29th, 2006

tuba
haha tuba bassline makes me excited to be alive!!! i love the feel of this. nice drum beat, nice banjo, freaking TUBA BASSLINE!
- d_chisholm
Salt Lake City, Utah
March 29th, 2006

great!
very engaging drums and rythm to start off with. the vocalist has that Johnny Cash like sound to him. this song is layered wonderfully with the instruments... great harmonies/vocals! overall, catchy smart lyrics and intriguing instrumentation. great production. i LOVE the slide guitar!
- Trogg
Vancouver, Bc, Canada

Hooked
I love it already (10 seconds in) - great intro. And the vocals come in and they're great. Reminds of Leonard Cohen - I like the harmonies. Great rhythm - I hope there's a cd. I must have this song.
- bgypsies
Sierraville, California
March 28th, 2006

intro priceless
tuba!.. need more tracks like this.. gives me a sense of the world spinning around.. follow your heart on this stuff... dan hicks and the hot licks... chorus cool..
- MakWolven
The Hague, Netherlands
March 28th, 2006

TUBA?
Wait just one minute Tuba? Thats a tuba right? It's perfect! The guitars are a great compliment to the tuba as a bass. The drums are cool as well. The song is just the right amount of elements to make it perfect. Now for the vocals which are PERFECT!
- dieselboy1330
Oshkosh, Wisconsin
March 27th, 2006

New Orleans
Awesome, a tuba! I'm a former tuba player, so it's fun to hear and well played.
Wow this is creative, has good mix of country and New Orleans to it.
The mix is very good. The lyrics and melody are very nice. I really like the mandolins.
Really nice horn work too.
The drums are really nice too.
Everything is really tight. This is a great song that will do well in this genre.
Nice job!
- genoman2462
Madison, Wisconsin
March 27th, 2006

Take me to 'Nawlins
I love the horns with the mandolin. The slide playing is superb. Classic americana. The vocals remind me of Johnny Cash. High energy and very well performed. I like the New Orleans theme. Sounds like a street performer with a full ba - INTERNET FANS

FEEDBACK FROM INTERNET FANS

Great tune...puts you on the road!
Yeah, drums come out kickin and then...tuba? Are you kiddin me? But wait, I like it, I like it. Bass support, then enter banjo to establish the rhythm framework. Acoustic Guitar comes in to fill and we are on the road. Take me for a ride. Well done boys!
Enter the vocals, our feet are tappin by now and with the platform laid the story unfolds. Perfect tone and delivery by an obviously seasoned song man. Again great job with great lyrics too.
May I interject here for a moment to say...this is stellar country blues tune, top drawer country rock song, funky in your face bluegrass piece, take your pick...
And how about that takeout! Distortion on the horns...you guys never cease to amaze on this one, and I would buy an album on the if come, just based on this tune alone. Impressive writing skills on display here. A five star production to boot.
- roadhouserock
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

New Orleans here I come!
I'm back in New Orleans. I'm surrounded by people from everywhere, drinking and having a ball. This song puts me in a happy place.
- waltei
April 11th, 2006

catchy
nice tuba and banjo combo. i wasn't aware they went together so well. this song is super catchy. reminds me of oh brother, where art thou? the vocals have a lot of character and the beat and melody are really catchy.
- CraZyPickleZ
Edmonton, Alberta
April 5th, 2006

Having Hoo Doo Ball
I can honestly say that this is probably the most original piece of music that I've heard so far here at GARAGEBAND.
- whitebear
Crickhowell, Wales, United Kingdom

trombone
nice surprise that ,good song singer has a good voice nice backing vocal and the banjo keeps things chuggin' along nicely ,absolute delight is the brass solo love it, gettin' further into the song and realising that this is very slick indeed ,you have some lovely frills goin on ,slide guitar was great ,production was major league, you are all longstanding seasoned players and it shows , good luck with this one sure you wont need it.
- denniscoultas
Alton, Staffordshire, United Kingdom

Nice riffs!
I love the trombone and banjo riffs. The lyrics are wonderful and vocals are nice to listen to. This is going on my playlist and I will buy your CD any day. So unique and original, you can't go wrong with this sound! I hear that bluegrass, I can't get enough of it. Nice horn solo too, nice to hear horns for a change!!!
- Lauricia
March 30th, 2006

second line cash
Wow, don't hear the tuba (euphonium?) very often...gives it a second line sound fo' sho. This is like johnny cash meets rebirth brass band. nice production...great use of background voices.
this would be a hit in the treme (or what's left of it)...
- Rsanborn
Portland, Oregon
March 29th, 2006

tuba
haha tuba bassline makes me excited to be alive!!! i love the feel of this. nice drum beat, nice banjo, freaking TUBA BASSLINE!
- d_chisholm
Salt Lake City, Utah
March 29th, 2006

great!
very engaging drums and rythm to start off with. the vocalist has that Johnny Cash like sound to him. this song is layered wonderfully with the instruments... great harmonies/vocals! overall, catchy smart lyrics and intriguing instrumentation. great production. i LOVE the slide guitar!
- Trogg
Vancouver, Bc, Canada

Hooked
I love it already (10 seconds in) - great intro. And the vocals come in and they're great. Reminds of Leonard Cohen - I like the harmonies. Great rhythm - I hope there's a cd. I must have this song.
- bgypsies
Sierraville, California
March 28th, 2006

intro priceless
tuba!.. need more tracks like this.. gives me a sense of the world spinning around.. follow your heart on this stuff... dan hicks and the hot licks... chorus cool..
- MakWolven
The Hague, Netherlands
March 28th, 2006

TUBA?
Wait just one minute Tuba? Thats a tuba right? It's perfect! The guitars are a great compliment to the tuba as a bass. The drums are cool as well. The song is just the right amount of elements to make it perfect. Now for the vocals which are PERFECT!
- dieselboy1330
Oshkosh, Wisconsin
March 27th, 2006

New Orleans
Awesome, a tuba! I'm a former tuba player, so it's fun to hear and well played.
Wow this is creative, has good mix of country and New Orleans to it.
The mix is very good. The lyrics and melody are very nice. I really like the mandolins.
Really nice horn work too.
The drums are really nice too.
Everything is really tight. This is a great song that will do well in this genre.
Nice job!
- genoman2462
Madison, Wisconsin
March 27th, 2006

Take me to 'Nawlins
I love the horns with the mandolin. The slide playing is superb. Classic americana. The vocals remind me of Johnny Cash. High energy and very well performed. I like the New Orleans theme. Sounds like a street performer with a full ba - INTERNET FANS

CD REVIEW: Minimal - Mississippi
By Chip Withrow - 07/11/06 - 11:01 AM EST

I’m intrigued by artists who put exciting twists on traditional music forms: Coltrane’s take on the whimsical “My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music, the Grateful Dead melting a psychedelic jam into a Johnny Cash or Woody Guthrie tune, Van Morrison’s late 1960s/early 1970s brew of country and soul.

And now I’m grooving to Mississippi by the San Francisco group Minimal – an avant garde soundtrack to a musical tour of brassy Dixieland, Delta blues and jaded funky-yet-smooth West Coast jazz rock. It’s a sprawling album, one in which disparate styles and instruments work together like layers of textures on a canvas.

When I opened up the package containing this CD, I was curious and a bit confounded. No note, no bio, not even a cover for the case – just a web site address on the disc. I went to mechanicalarts.com, and one of the first things I saw was a startling photo of a face (go to the site to see what I mean). Through the link, I found that visual artist Donald McCrea is also the guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and leader of Minimal.

The first instrument you hear is spectral, swamp-blues banjo that dissolves into “Ragtime,” a percussive, horn-driven invitation. That is followed by “Song of the South,” which mixes guitar and tuba and takes you on an image-laden trip downriver.

I would play the funky “Coaltown Babies” for someone who wants to know right away what this group is about. Pounding piano, a couple of percussive spoken-word breaks, fun background vocals, horns (with clarinet and muted trumpet featured), and McCrea’s Soul Coughing/Warren Zevon-esque vocals.

“Crescent City” is a driving, country-blues shuffle in a minor key. The guitar and banjo picking propel this song, and the horns take their turn in a way that reminds me of a Greek chorus to McCrea’s vocal.

The disc takes a turn into languid, cool jazz/blues with “Brand New Shade of Blue.” “Black Cat” is in a similar vein but a bit more sinister. Both feature heart-piercing guitar work and Melissa Phillippe’s inventive background vocals.

“Mississippi” and “Coconino” retain some of the deep South feel of the earlier numbers. They take their own sweet time, with snaky horns adding to the bluesy yearning of the lyrics.

The mainly acoustic “Bluebottle Fly” is the shadowiest of these bluesier cuts. It’s followed by the jazziest and most mainstream number, the pretty yet lyrically jaded “Tinseltown.”
“Tinseltown” sounds too much like Steely Dan for a disc that is otherwise so original, but it has some deft flamenco-sounding acoustic guitar.

Then it’s back down South: “Boogaloo Down Beale Street” mixes Dixieland jazz with sultry soul, and it plays smartly on the classic riff to Al Green’s “Take Me to the River.” The following “Roadkill Blues” is a backwoods dirge with a low brass background and slippery slide guitar. Then the album comes full circle with an instrumental reprise of “Ragtime.”

I wish I knew more about what prompted a San Francisco band to tackle this kind of music. I know the Bay Area is a great place for music, in which you are liable to hear anything. I learned from the band’s MySpace site that members have played with an eclectic group of artists such as Commander Cody, Ella Fitzgerald, the Judds and Van Morrison.

But Donald McCrea and company have a psychic connection to this music that goes beyond tribute. Minimal has evolved popular, familiar jazz and blues into striking postmodernism.

www.mechanicalarts.com

- CHIP WITHROW/www.musesmuse.com 7/11/06

IndiePro Comments: MINiMAL delivers an aurally pleasing sound, which is layered with guitars, horns, intelligent lyrics, and easy-going yet fun female backup vocals. Bringing your ears on a journey everywhere, from Oompah and school marching bands, to bluegrass and Americana, every song offers a unique style in and of itself. Parts of the music are reminiscent of such artists as Warren Zevon, Joe Cocker, Joe Walsh…even Cake and Beck.
- www.indiepro.com

MINIMAL features the artistry and words of Bay Area resident Donald McCrea and his collective of musical masters. At first listen, this seems to be straightforward bluegrass and traditional Folk-influenced Country but there is a lot more going on. Sure the love of all of the traditional and historic are there, but there is a sense of pushing the envelope and the genre forward in ways lyrical, radical, and beautiful while staying firmly grounded in the musical wonder that is our world.

- www.thefeveredbrainofradiomike.com