Review by Marino Serdons
Keys and Chords
“Jeff Crandall, alias J. Briozo, cuts in your soul and mind with deep poetic lyrics and great minimalistic compositions. Sit in your chair, take a cigar and a glass of wine. Enjoy!”
“The album dates from November 2017, but only now ends up in my player. J. Briozo is the alter ego of Jeff Crandall, a multi-instrumentalist-composer-singer from Minneapolis USA. Oh, the umpteenth Americana band? Yes, but one that definitely raises the eyebrows sky high. While Jeff made recordings with the Swallows band, he taped his own creations in the studio next door. He sporadically asked for assistance from the band members for their interpretations of his ‘open frameworks.’ Deep In The Waves sounds fresh and original in a mix of rock, jazz, psych, orchestral and folk. Swallows, the band of which he is lead singer, mainly plays roots rock Americana. His own compositions are calmer with acoustic guitar or lap steel (‘Rain Song’, ‘Las Cruces’,’ Blue ‘) and exceptionally retro (‘ Spinning Out, ‘Sun Sun True’). Jeff Crandall does not deny his origins and brings beautiful original songs in which the Americana is just below the surface (and especially comes from his fellow musicians?). Listen to the beautiful, velvet sung ‘Firefly’ with subtle percussion and background vocals: pure pleasure! ‘Blue’ lasts only 1:39 but undresses you to the depths of your being. J. Briozo knows how to write beautiful lyrics and sings them sensitively to the bone. Superb eclectic debut album! A purebred singer-songwriter!”