Imagine young Garfunkel without Simon

by Kate Mackley

As I book my little Highlands Cafe, I consistently search for new talent and turn to my friends and Paste magazine for leads and they agreed on one artist I hadn't yet heard: Denison Witmer. Witmer is earnest, his songs are straightforward, short, gripping and pure. Imagine young Garfunkel without Simon; Witmer's songs have innocence and wonder. Comments on blogs and myspaces about him rave about "keeping me sane" and "changing my life." Like friends Sufjan Stevens and James McAlister who played on the recent release, Are You a Dreamer?, Witmer uses spiritual imagery to convey emotion, not to evangelize.

"Save, are you a savior?

Are you a savior?

Will you save?

When my blue eyes close

Will white clouds lift me up?

When my body slows

My mind run fast and free?

Do you hold me when I sleep?"

- From "Are You a Dreamer?" - the title track to the new album.

The simplicity of this song and "Worry All the Time" beguiled me. I love this songwriter. I love how Witmer boils emotion down to its essence, picks his guitar, and voila! you're crying in car, thinking, damn, that's a great lyric. He's touring with Saxon Shore, an instrumental, ambient post-rock band. I wasn't lucky enough to be able to book him at Highlands Cafe, but the Cavern scooped him up. Friday is Denison day and even better, Stellamaris and Red Monroe are bookending the bill. Red Monroe will be a rocking end to this bill, as the former Oklahoma boys have been leaving behind their U2 roots and writing songs both more rock, "Carolina Cigarette", and more folk, "Blue Mountain Air", than their previous Meeting on a Train material. Still experimental and not for the uninitiated, Red Monroe will shake up the Witmer fans, who should listen well, not disperse with the first stomp of the effects pedal. Red Monroe live is an experience, a brilliant end to this otherwise introspective night. Denison Witmer live, that's a dream.