MAURICE TANI – THIS IS IT!
Live Acoustic Performance In-Concert Recording
NEW ALBUM FROM SINGER-SONGWRITER ON LITTLE VILLAGE
Singer-songwriter Maurice Tani’s second album on the Little Village label, “This Is It!”, is a live, acoustic recording capturing the excitement and spontaneity of a live concert.
Known for his wry/rye-to-romantic songwriting, agile guitar style and expressive singing, Tani’s particular flavor of Americana is a broad spectrum tincture of influences to cure what ails you. While rooted (at times distantly) in country music, his writing is centered on an urban-western perspective. Short musical narratives of life on the left coast. A sort of cinema for the blind.
“I was actually blown away. Maurice Tani writes songs that sound at once familiar, ethereal and beautiful. … songwriter’s songwriter with reoccurring themes and his own life experiences, a mournful world critics to date have rushed to categorize as “country music.” -Robert Sproul, No Depression Magazine
Recorded at the acoustically gorgeous Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, California and mixed by Kid Andersen at his Greaseland Music Services facility in San Jose, “This Is It!” was tracked entirely live and features all acoustic instrumentation.
As with his live shows,“This Is It!” is something of a “Best Of” package, featuring material spanning Tani’s work over the last 15 years, all fleshed out with a brilliant band well suited for the subtle, nuance-to-large hammer approach the writing demands.
Pianist Henry Salvia shines brightly throughout with colorful playing that compliments the material beautifully, as do the rhythm section of 77 El Deora regulars, bassist Mike Anderson, Ken Owen on drums and percussionist Jeanine Richardson.
Besides Tani, featured vocalists include long-time sparring partner Pam Brandon, and the fabulous gospel singing of LVF labelmates The Sons Of The Soul Revivers -brothers Dwayne, James and Walter Morgan.