These Days
Joe Rohan
Off the Map Music

Sticklers for our "less than 1 year old" tagline at the end of each Cool Cleveland Sounds column will recognize that Joe Rohan's release These Days is well over 12 months in age. Get over it, people. Every once in a while I'll pull something out that's a bit older -- like John McGrail's last CD, which I reviewed several months ago -- and highlight it again with either an "in case you missed it," or for a very specific purpose. With These Days, it's both.

Rohan's follow up to his debut Walk Along is great coffeehouse folk-pop. Not many people can do that sound in a meaningful, listenable way and maintain a strong sense of diversity and identity. Rohan's 11-cut release does it all, from the country leanings of "Desert Love," to a spry and hearty "Lovestruck Romeo," where Rohan busts out one of the sexiest lines written locally. Sweet love like an opium rain, he waxes. Roll you over like a slow tidal wave. Talk about beating around the bush!

Though never one to go overboard on country, Rohan does decorate his zesty numbers (like the Skynyrd-inspired "Angeline") with just enough "boot n' spur" to give those rocking songs some earth. And when Rohan he scales it back, as he does on the solo cut "James Dean," he lets the story take center stage. Very wise. As for "Cold Winter," you couldn't have picked a more appropriate song for the kind of weekend we've had: Rohan rasps it's the kind that makes for angry bones with almost Jamie Cullum-like lyrical phrasing. Both fun, and well done.

"I was born in Cleveland," the soulful Rohan writes on his website http://www.joerohan.com. "I'd use that line in a song but I'm too afraid that I might one day hear it being sung by the organ player at a baseball game." I say, why not? These songs surely are his own, full of great character. Now if we could just get some more of them... so, yes. This CD is over a year old. You don't have to email me and say so. Guess you could say I'm fishing for a thought from Rohan himself on when we might expect the next disc of his great new material to arrive.

Rohan performs at Flannery's Pub, 323 Prospect on Saturday, February 10. For more info, visit http://www.joerohan.com and http://www.flannerys.com.

From Cool Cleveland Managing Editor Peter Chakerian peterATcoolcleveland.com

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