Ryan Robinson has put together a very solid effort with Second Bar on the Right. His musicial vision and lyrical content are years ahead of his age as he claims to be "only 17" on the CD's opening track. I had no idea that he was this young because his music was very mature. What wasn't mature was revealed in his vocals. His youthful sound reminded me of a teenager before his voice changes and this youthfullness bothered me throughout the CD

This youthful sounding voice was a clear draw back to my overall listening experience. The good news is that Ryan is a great song writer and has a great grasp on engaging the listener to hear his story. I think he should offer his songs to (pardan me for saying this) an older artist and have him/her cover a few of his songs. He has a brilliant future as a song writer but at this point his future as a singer my not be as brightly obvious.

I could hear someone like Dave Matthews covering 'Tonight' or even a few of the more alternative bands taking his acoustic vision to another more dynamic level. My personal suggestion would be to audition a number of singers, then seek out a real band. This music would work much better in a band format verses a solo effort. The music needs more dynamics, a quality vocalist and a solid backing band could take this music to a new level of enjoyment (plus it's so much more fun to work in a band).

Based on the liner notes I am lead to believe that Ryan recorded everything himself which means he never had an engineer involved. This is a big mistake for up and coming indie artists. An engineer is needed to keep everything on course and to suggest when it is neccesary to change course. Plus, their studio expertise comes into play with mic placement, the use of reverb, delay and compression. The engineer can take an average song and make it near amazing. Just think what the Beatles would have sounded like without George Martin blazing a trail for the Fab 4. The old saying "two heads are always better then one" comes into play in the studio with an engineer involved. A second set of ears is vital to achieving a total vision.

I like Ryan's song writing skills. Ryan is mature beyond his years and if he continues writing great music he will be a succesfull song writer. I can't be as complimentary with his thin vocals. The lack of dynamics in his voice could have been compensated in the studio by a quality studio engineer. The use of vocal doubling or adding a touch of slap delay or compression could would fuel a more dynamic sounding vocal. Even expanding the vocals with multipul harmonies to add additional color could have been helpful.
The CD gets 3 1/2 stars.