Denison Witmer-say the name with me- Den-i-son Wit-mer. We are doing this exercise for two reasons, because a) his name is kinda hard to pronounce and b) I don't want you to forget it. Now I suppose you want to know who this guy is and what does he have to do with The River Bends? Well, please allow me to entertain your curiosity (isn't this fun!?!?).
Denison Witmer is a singer-songwriter from Philadelphia, who has released several unbelievably good records with the label Burnt Toast Vinyl. After extensive touring he returned home and developed concepts for two albums rating high on the unique-o-meter. The first of these is an album composed soley of cover songs that pay tribute to handful of heroes. In any other case I would place all songs written by Jackson Browne or Neil Young in the "untouchable" file within the cover song warehouse, but on Recovered, Witmer flawlessly produces interpretations that could make the original songwriters weep, with joy of course.
Witmer's second brainchild is what I am presenting you with today: a side project called The River Bends. On this record Witmer has teamed up with a group of "friends," as indicated on the CD case, to take Witmer's songwriting excellence and back it with a full band. When I say full band I really mean an additional acoustic guitar, some percussion, and maybe a little piano action. We're not talking turntables, xylophones or anything that outrageous. So in other words, the sound is similar to his solo records but maybe a bit more upbeat.
Trying to chose a favorite track of And Flows into the Sea is like trying to chose a favorite flavor of Pez candy, its impossible because they are all equally delicious. Okay, maybe not the best metaphor, but hopefully you get my point: there are a bunch of good tracks on the record. A stand outs are "Looking for You", and "I Love you April" where Witmer states that "Today I feel like a part of something bigger than myself/ a raindrop in the sea/ a book between books on the shelf". The entire album is painted with beautiful artistic imagery and will send singer-songwriter enthusiasts into a state of bliss.
Hopefully by this point some of your questions about The River Bends have been answered, and if they haven't I would encourage you to pick up the album because I really believe that it speaks for itself.
