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		CD Review - Aaron Schroeder Reprinted from August 2006 Issue -by ANDY PLYMALE What is it about the Tri-Cities that inspires such musical achievement? Is it the wide open spaces? Is it the lack of big city distractions? Or is it just that artists need to suffer to create? Whatever it is, I am continually astonished by some of the musical creativity that our citizenry expresses. Most recently I was reminded of this phenomenon when giving a first listen to Southern Heart in Western Skin, the remarkable debut CD by Tri-Cities newcomer Aaron Schroeder. A Calfornia native, the twenty-something Schroeder comes to the Tri-Cities from Boston. As a result, the tracks on the CD were recorded in the “Tri-Cities,” that is, L.A., Boston, and “the” Tri-Cities. Which turns out to be a good thing, because the three groups of session musicians that Schroeder used lend dramatic differences to the cuts. “Whoever was around at the time and willing to work for free or [for] cheap beer got involved,” Schroeder said recently. The selections range from the folkish feel of the Boston tracks, to the Wilco, Billy Bragg, and country vibes of the Tri-Cities tracks, recorded with personnel from local art rock band Mu Meson, to the more pop rendition, appropriately, of the one L.A. track, the Beatles-esque, Don’t Go Home. Especially impressive are the light-and-precious Jolie Holland sounding vocals of Lindsay Clark on the Boston recordings. Schroeder said that he didn’t know much about Clark except that she goes to school in Boston. “I was at work when they recorded her vocal tracks,” he explained. “When Tyler [the producer] played her the track for her vocals on The Real World, she couldn’t stop giggling at it’s bouncy vibe. Apparently she spent more time laughing than she did singing, which was absolutely fine with me, because she sounds so amazing on it.” As should not be surprising for someone who is a manager at a bookstore (Barnes and Noble), Schroeder is an accomplished wordsmith, as is evident from this line from Movin’ Movin’ Train: “Does the preacher know where we all go when it is time to die? Or is he singing us to sleep just so we’ll shut our eyes?” Likewise, Schroeder’s pronunciation is refreshingly idiosyncratic, as when he makes “smile” a two-syllable word. And he isn’t afraid to let his accomplished backing musicians shine. “Indie rock is kind of coming around to the idea that if you can’t do solos as good as the guy next to you, pass it off to him,” Schroeder explains. In addition to having used Mu Meson as a backing band, Schroeder also shows their influence in tracks that lack them, most notably on the lullaby, Devil’s Lake. “I did that in my room here using a children’s toy accordion and some busted keyboards,” Schroeder said. With it’s stripped down instrumentation and that Mu Meson “exploratory vibe,” it’s also one of the most moving tracks on the CD, if not the most catchy. Performing of late with Mu Meson as his backing band, The Mustaches, Schroeder seems to have settled in well to his new home (thanks to the girlfriend who lured him here). So perhaps it’s to the Tri-Cities that Schroeder refers when in, Rollin Tennesee, he sings “this town ain’t whiskey, but it’s better than beer.” Aaron Schroeder’s Southern Heart in Western Skin can be heard and purchased (only $7) at www.myspace.com/aaronschroeder or at CDBaby.com, www.cdbaby.com/cd/aaronschroeder.