Welcome to the EvO:R Independent CD Reviews Section.
I would like to take a few minutes to introduce ourselves to everyone. The EvO:R review section features reviews from various independent musicians that submit material for our consideration.

I wanted to let you know a little about our review teams collective thoughts on music. It's important to let the people that we review know how we think of their music and how we listened to their creations.

First of all, we strongly believe that if your music stinks then the world should know about it! After all, you have the nerve to charge as much for your stuff as the majors do so it better be pretty damn good. If your material is good, we'll be glad to tell the world. I We will hold nothing back! That is a promise.
The EvO:R CD Review Team

“Before I start this review, I’d like to add a side note to the artist and anyone who is planning on sending a CD in for review that might read this one. Please make sure you take the shrink rap off the CD before sending it in, especially, if it is a digipac or has a card board sleeve. Paper cuts suck! All shrink rapped CD’s are now at the bottom of the pile and at the rate CD’s come in for review, the one’s at the bottom may never get opened.”

Doug McCurry has been involved in original music since the 1980's, as both a musician and producer. He was a member of the band Big Brick Building, who released 2 CD's and drew the attention of industry professionals, critics, and alternative music fans. After several years of absence, Seven Songs About Leaving marks the return of Doug McCurry to writing and recording music.

My initial thoughts as the first track, Mama Said, was playing were ‘grrr’ and ‘ugh.’ By the time I was a minute into the second track, 21st Century Car, I was sold on Doug McCurry’s talent and creativity. All the content on this record could be played with an acoustic guitar and vocal and they would work well, as the lyrical content is strong enough to do the whole singer/songwriter thing. But Doug stretches his creativity and uses every tool in his arsenal to give us a musical backdrop with plenty of depth.

In the tradition of songwriters like Ian Hunter, David Bowie, and Tom Petty – Doug gives us good solid lyrics with a lot of acoustic and electric guitars that are surrounded but experimental sounds. There are a lot of very cool noises and keyboard parts that made me want to go back and figure out what they were. The best example of this is the track 21st Century Car. There are beeps and radio noise throughout the track. It’s just very creative.

Other notable tracks are Mama Said NO. 2, October Rain and Dig a Hole. Seven Songs about Leaving is entirely Doug McCurry. His performance and production work are both stellar and he is a very good songwriter. Fans of Bowie, Ian Hunter and Tom Petty would love this stuff.

Song Samples from the CD
All song samples are from the Doug McCurry page on CD Baby.

 Mama Said/   21st Century Car/   Mama Said No 2/   October Rain/   Wake Up Call/   Dig A Hole/   Jesus Is Calling/ 

Conclusion:

This is great record, overall. I had to get past the first song which thankfully is only 1:36 long. After listening to the track again, it’s not as bad as I thought, but definitely not a great track to open a disc with when the listener doesn’t know what to expect from the artist. I just wasn’t grabbed by the first song. The rest of the CD flowed nicely and was very appealing. Despite my first reaction and the paper cut under my right index finger nail, Doug McCurry –Seven Songs about Leaving gets an A.

Jimmy Caterine...EvO:R Reviewer.

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About the reviewer- Jimmy Caterine has numerous album credits to his name. He is most noted as founder, guitarist and co-writer for 80’s metal quartet, Sacred Rite (Capitol Records.) He has worked with top name professionals in the industry. This would include Grammy Award winning producer Sonny Limbo (Bertie Higgins) and publishing coordinator Randall Wixen (Fleetwood Mac, Jackson Brown.)

Aside from his original projects he did a 3 month stint playing guitar for the live stage production of Rocky Horror Picture Show in 1987. He was the guitarist for MGM recording artist and power house vocalist, Sami Jo Cole (Tell Me a Lie) in 1995. He has also played with classic rock tribute act Time Machine, on the Las Vegas convention circuit in ’97 and ’98.

Following a car accident in 2001 Jimmy Caterine took a break from performing. He was reluctant to return to the stage due to PTSD. In the years that followed Jimmy took an inward journey to confront his own personal demons. While away he had to come to terms with the many changes in the music industry. During his hiatus he created and released two independent solo CD’s.

In 2007 Jimmy recorded and released a reunion CD with Sacred Rite. Currently Jimmy owns Soulaire Sound which is a mobile recording/live sound reinforcement company in Phoenix, AZ. He performs regularly with his organic jazz sextet, Dream Chemistry.

If you’d like to know more about Jimmy Caterine you can visit the following web sites: