Blind Uncle Harry – “American Way”

We’ve covered Blind Uncle Harry a couple of times on this blog, this time is no different. If you’re unfamiliar with the singer/songwriter, “band collective” from Bloomington, Indiana – you can read our previous post about them here. On September 29th 2021, they released a brand new track titled “American Way”. We took a listen, what did we think? Here goes…

Well – the start is kind of cool, the tone of the acoustic is pretty nice. The drums come kicking in before hearing a whole bunch of rushing and dragging from that and the bass which sticks out a bit. The vocal performance is just a touch better than the last single but not by much. The main vocal performance as a whole, while very “The Doors-y”, falls ever so flat towards the end of the phrasing with very odd fluctuations in the notes which make absolutely no sense to do as it doesn’t add anything to the song as a whole, just takes away. What is even more interesting is around the chorus sections, the backing vocalist is far more on key than the main singer – which is very uncomfortable to listen to. The only thing we’ll say about the lyrical content at face value is it barely passes as a critique, some of it suffers from “Sardine Syndrome” – packed into the melody.

There’s a little solo on the acoustic just before the one minute mark, which is done to a satisfactory standard – nothing which sticks out too much. There’s another one not too long after at about one and a half minutes into the track, no repeated phrasing on the guitar it is something different but the vibe is totally the same – fair enough. By the time the song finishes, we’ve counted four guitar solos.

Overall, despite much of this review, this is a slight improvement upon their previous work. In terms of the mix and master of the track, the levels are much better and elements within the track are clearly audible. It’s a very minimalist approach with just acoustic guitars, two vocal tracks (main and backing), drums and bass. What would make this track palatable would be to tighten up the drums and bass, either flex-pitch or re-do most (not all) of the main vocals and perhaps take a look at the lyrics and try not to cram everything in. There is clearly the workings of a decent critical song here but as this stands – this needs some work.

Listen to “American Way” by Blind Uncle Harry on Bandcamp or YouTube. Follow them on Facebook and visit their official website.

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