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| | January, 2005 - Lively Times Review by Scott Prinzig | New Music By Montanans
By Scott Prinzing
Looking for some folksy rock ‘n roll with lyrics rooted in
history? Bozeman’s Stone Poetry will take you Into the Great
Unknown with their debut CD full of songs that touch on Galileo, Ben
Franklin, Lewis and Clark, and even outer space.
Bandleader Daniel J. Smith is a geologist by training, a multimedia
entrepreneur by trade and a musician by calling. With a resume
that includes entertaining U.S. soldiers on furlough in Guam during the
Vietnam War, Smith has also performed across the greater Northwest both
in bar bands and as a solo folksinger. Along the way he has
continued to create songs inspired by historical events and figures,
and written with an eye for accuracy.
“The philosophy behind Stone Poetry is to mesh science, history and art
into contemporary rock music,” he says in the liner notes.
Over the past few years, Smith gathered a few fellow musical travelers
together to form Stone Poetry. First he recruited an old friend,
guitarist Dan Krza, who shared his musical vision. Next came
bassist Russell Barabe (who has been alive almost as long as some of
his bandmates have been playing music). Vocalist Kate Regan Ciari
adds her harmonies to Smith’s lead vocals, and veteran Montana drummer
Mark Sullivan provides percussive drive.
The years of experience shows in the musicianship on this album and is
highlighted by the crisp and clean engineering of Gil Stober of
Bozeman’s Peak Recording and Sound.
The liner notes for Stone Poetry include several paragraphs of praise
and prose by Bozeman journalist Todd Wilkinson, who describes the
band’s music as a mix of “dynamic and progressive rock ‘n roll with
influences of classical, bluegrass and Latin rhythms.”
Whether or not you agree with Wilkinson’s claim that Stone Poetry
“delivers far greater listening pleasure on cross-country road trips
than any book on tape written by a Pulitzer-prize author,” it is worth
trying the comparison on your next drive across the Treasure State.
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