Sean Rowe

Rowe has the uncanny ability - in live performance - to mimic a three piece band. - Metroland Magazine

[Rowe has] the grainy, coarse, pulverized and yet full and lumbering voice of a blues singer or an understudy of Tom Waits mixing with the slick, agile, lyrical folk rocking command of a soft-spoken young urban singer/songwriter. - CD Baby

Sean Rowe is an artist I had never heard of until last week and his new album hit my doormat. Sean Rowe is an artist I am going to be hearing a lot more of now! Magic is an apt title for this longplayer, as it’s dark & melancholic to the very core. This is right up there with my favorites so far for this year. There is something that moves me about singer/songwriters laying themselves bare. Sean Rowe does this in abundance throughout the album, whether it is in anyway autobiographical I have no idea. This is late night bar music in the best Tom Waits tradition and songwriting of Leonard Cohen proportions, trust me. (To read more, click the link below) - Battery In Your Leg

Posted on April 29th, Sean Rowe is most definitely not what you expect. Not in the slightest. I recently took a trip to his website and stared down his scruffy face and tattooed arm. All right, Mr. Rowe, let’s hear what you’ve got. I chose a random track – “Night” – and pressed play. I leaned back and closed my eyes to the soft, calm strumming lullaby. Nice, I thought - and then he started singing. Ladies and gentleman, toss away any preconceived notions you may have of this man and his music, and prepare to experience a sound so smooth and sultry, paired with lyrics so deeply soulful, that it must be pure Magic. Sean Rowe is real and intimate. His ability to create a world within each song both quietly and grandly is an absolute gift. Rowe’s entire soul is summoned into his voice, making each note genuine and every word meaningful. - In Your Speakers

Magic, is a brilliant album that builds and opens up as it goes, and intuitively begs to be revisited repeatedly. It displays Rowe's command of restraint, as much as his willingness to unleash a wide range emotions, both lyrically and sonically. The collection allows the listener to take in Rowe's extraordinary voice and masterful lyricism, while the layered arrangements of the tunes run the spectrum from hauntingly sparse to calculatedly dense, by employing a wide range of strings, percussion, and backing vocals. - No Depression

Rowe will remind some listeners of other dark-hearted troubadours, from the closing-time stillness of Waits to the ravaged husk of a voice eerily similar to Greg Brown’s. “Time to Think’’ — with lines such as, “There’s a lot at stake/ A glass of wine/ One last drink to hide behind’’ — conjures up the smoky refrains of Leonard Cohen. - The Boston Globe

With an unrelenting baritone that hits deep from the beginning and songs that seem to bleed out straight from his heart, Magic is tear inducing in that wistful tender way. - The Rumpus

Sean Rowe’s earthy baritone — robust and gnarly as a mighty oak, tender as spring leaves — has the power to send a rowdy room into a reverent hush. His ANTI- Records debut album Magic, released this February, has rapidly garnered critical attention for Rowe’s lyrical, imagistic approach to songwriting, colored by his deep passion for nature. His brooding verse is quietly draped in ambient-electric washes and acoustic guitar fingering, with hypnotizing results. As he says in “Surprise,” “let’s leave these rusted old folks in the city.” Yes, let's — and let's elope into Rowe's beautiful songs. - BeaconPass

Something in indie-folk singer Sean Rowe's confident, deep baritone suggests that he's a deep thinker. And it's true: As a self-described "modern hunter/gatherer" who periodically retreats from his home in Troy upstate to live off the land, he's given himself the precious time to contemplate his craft, leading him to write some heartbreakingly poignant words. These lyrics, on his first nationally distributed album, Magic, are at times autobiographical ("While everybody is thinking themselves to death, I just use my hands" on "The Walker") and at times sarcastic ("The Kingdom of Heaven is down at the mall" on "American"), but they're always interesting. - The Village Voice

Some artists seem to spring up out of the earth fully formed, like mushrooms. Recent Anti- signee and dedicated naturalist Sean Rowe is such a singer/songwriter. With its confident, mature and meditative approach, his debut album belies his newbie status. It was recorded near his native Albany, coincidentally in a building where Rowe’s grandfather used to work, and you can hear chairs squeak, instruments shifting and the band whispering to each other between takes. In 2007, he went on a 24-day solo wilderness stint, and the experience comes through in mood and metaphor more than subject matter. Opener Surprise is a sexy baritone Van Morrison-style love song, Night is a stripped-down look at innocence from the perspective of experience, while teenage disaster story Jonathan ramps up the energy. The spacious Leonard Cohen-inspired Time To Think, with its bowed bass, cello and female backup vocals, is the best place to start. Top track: Time To Think - NOW Magazine

Sean Rowe's words and voice definitely have the Magic; here's to him casting future spells on me, and hopefully on you, too. - Three Imaginary Girls

How refreshing to hear a voice with such conviction, with storytelling and song craft so compelling, so stirring to the human soul. Sean Rowe’s new album conveys a sense of wisdom; a collection of songs brimming with powerful, emotional weight. - Performer Magazine

Don't be fooled by the quiet nature of Sean Rowe's music. These are songs that are unexpectedly disarming. First, Rowe's baritone commands attention -- a deep, lived-in, worn-out and seen-it-all voice, one belonging to a barroom storyteller with a slyly understated grasp of melodic twists and turns. Then, his lyrics don't leave much room for a listener to turn away. - LA Times Pop & Hiss

We didn't exactly have to crane our necks to hear Rowe — he's got a voice built for bellowing into canyons — but he came packing a succession of ever-louder acoustic-guitar set-ups just in case. A native of rural New York, Rowe devotes his off hours to wilderness survival and what he calls "primitive living." But if he ever made the move to his home state's biggest city, he'd be nicely equipped to busk in the subways: He's got enough presence and volume to drown out local trains and noisy wildlife alike. - NPR