Jeff Cannon

May 16 - 23, 1 9 9 6

** Jeff Cannon

TRUE

(Capital City)

On Jeff Cannon's debut CD, rivers flow, leaves fall, a heart beats a rhythm, a rosebush loses petals in the rain. Cannon uses these self-consciously poetic metaphors to suggest a sort of fatalism or inevitability in the ebb and flow of human relations. His is an old-fashioned sensibility that harks back to an era when poetry and sincerity were valued over irony and cynicism. One tipoff is "Tarzan and Jane,'' an upbeat folk-rocker that portrays the underbelly of marital relations; it borrows its hook from Simon and Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson.'' Indeed, many of Cannon's tunes boast a harmonic sophistication more resonant of '70s-style soft rock than contemporary folk-pop music, perhaps betraying his roots as a commercial pop songwriter and classically trained vocalist.

"True" is his declaration of intent. "I burned the marching orders,'' he sings, referring to his decision two years ago to quit his day job and become a full-time musician. That commitment has variously found him entertaining commuters in Boston subway stations during rush hour, living out of his car in Cambridge for a few months last fall, and gracing the stages at local folk clubs.

-- Seth Rogovoy