Local CDs have been piling up on my desk, gathering dust and silently demanding my attention. In an effort to clean up the mess in my cubicle, I offer you these reviews in what may be my most positive local-CD roundup ever. Live at the Mp3Cafe.com by Sound Proof and Friends (Soundproofproductions.net). At first, I was turned off by the press release that came with this CD, which featured one music critic hailing Sound Proof, a.k.a. Jason Hanley, as "soulful acoustic blues-rock" and never-negative Palm Beach Post critic Bill Meredith calling Hanley "a musical freedom fighter." But, in fact, the tunes on this album draw as much from world-music influences as they do from blues or rock, making it a good soundtrack for a wake-and-bake, lazy Sunday morning. Bongos, swirling guitars, lengthy full review
Dan Sweeney
It may not qualify as a musical empire, but Jason Hanley's Sound Proof Productions has become a Lake Worth epicenter for under-the-radar local music. The singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and sound engineer goes by his recording label name rather than his own when producing music by other artists. The Web site, and even his own live gigs, are also billed as Sound Proof. Ask the Detroit native why, and you get an answer that goes beyond humility. "It's very methodical, actually," Hanley says from work at the Java Juicebar (an extension of his other downtown Lake Worth job at the adjoining newsstand, Studio 205). "I'm doing business as Sound Proof Productions. It's the name I'm using to build the label, and a performance name to let people know to expect the kind of music I'm full review
Bill Meredith
THEMP3CAFE
