While it is tempting to put music featuring acoustic guitar and voice in the "singer-songwriter" bin, I'd rather get rid of that lazy category altogether. And then I can write something like this: Daniel Steinbock rambles around the folk music playground, occasionally dipping into pop and heavy reverb territory.

Daniel Steinbock Out of Blue (self-released)

Mostly, though, he's just playing and singing in that very 70s style that is the archetype of the (aargh!) singer-songwriter concept. If you never quite put together how it was that Neil Young could do an episode of "The Johnny Cash Show" and share the stage with James Taylor, well, this album might enlighten you. Steinbock's phrasing is reminiscent of Taylor, but his musical approach is much closer to Young's early work.

I like the songs where he takes sonic chances, but the quieter moments are stirring as well. Steinbock knows how to sell his songs, and he does so with an understated grace. The album gets positively elegiac as it slowly rolls to its conclusion.

The sequencing of this album really moves the whole project along. The first three songs are grabbers, and then the album spins slowly more and more introspective. Steinbock has the chops to make that work. A lovely set.

Jon Worley