Ah the Empire State

Ken Oak was literally brought to my attention yesterday. So I started cruising through his music and found a song that gave me thoughts about the city I was born in – New York. Ah, the streets of New York. Nothing like growing up across from Central Park. My best friend Eric and I used to do some pretty stupid things. Lets see if I can recall a couple of the more stupid moments we had…

Oh there was this one time where we were on the roof of our building sitting over the edge on the gargoyles so we could throw these army figures with parachutes off to the street 15 stories below. Then there was this time in the middle of winter when we made a humongous snowball that was probably at least 3 feet in diameter and proceeded to push it off of a walkway bridge over a street that ran through Central Park onto a bus. Then we did a second one and rolled it onto a taxi. I’m betting neither vehicle found it funny, but we couldn’t contain ourselves. I should stop there or I’ll make a complete ass of myself.

I’m liking the sparse feel of Ken’s song Empire State. It’s very intimate in that respect. I’m particularly fond of the combination of the acoustic guitars mixed with the cello and other strings. The feeling is obviously one of somberness in the verse. Then there’s the hope of the ‘American Dream’ in the prechorus, where he then brings it back down to somber in the chorus. Its an interesting twist. I think it’s why I chose this song. Another thing that I’m liking in this chorus is the harmonies created between the main vocal, the background vocal and the string lines – unusual.

As I understand it, he’s had some recent success on a soundtrack of the movie “She’s The Man”. At least that’s what memory is telling me. I think I should start taking ginko biloba cause the short term is fading. I always admire artists that can achieve this stuff without a label. I know how hard it is, mostly because I’ve been close to getting on soundtracks only to have it get yanked at the last second. My buddy that turned me on to them told me about some tour they are supposed to be on, but I can’t remember who’d they be opening for. Maybe Ken will pop on and post a message about it.

Think this is good stuff? Buy it. I’m sure Ken would love it, I know I would.