Reviews
Late (2008)
Jurgen Gothe September, 2008
CBC Radio Host and creator of DiscDrive, Canada's most-listened to national music program for over 23 years.
Perhaps the most over-used - and mis-used! - term in music today is "singer-songwriter"; there really are only very few practicing that craft today who are worthy of hanging the name on what they do. Singing and songwriting - particularly songwriting - require solid musical skills, poetic craft, economy of words, genuine stories-to-tell, a sense of humor (I mean, look at Cole Porter), style, phraseology, musicianship, cleverness, quirky and insightful lyrics and a sense of polish that makes the recipient of the singing and writing feel they have just witnessed something special being created. Hey - I've just described what George Meanwell does, perfectly.
You can count the true singer-songwriters at work in this country on the fingers of both hands. While most sing their diaries to mediocre music, George Meanwell has craft and skill, a sardonic sense of humor and, when the moment and music require it, genuine emotion. Put him near the very top alongside the Joni Mitchells, the Leonard Cohens, the Gordon Lightfoots and a handful of others. And pack all the rest in the big blue box and put it out on the curb.
I love George Meanwell's words and music. Here is a genuine singer-songwriter who is worthy of the term. In fact, among contemporary Canadians hanging on to that label these days, he stands head and shoulders above 99 and 44/100 per cent of them. Give me songs that work, that make me want to listen, that make me smile or frown or laugh or cry - that evoke a reaction. Not many can claim to be able to do that these days. It takes a true master of the form to bring it all together. George Meanwell remains one of Canada's best-kept secrets and that's a shame. He should be on everybody's radio, iPod, answering machine. If anybody was ever ready for the big time this is the singer-songwriter.
George Meanwell's songs are original, clever, often brilliant, incisive, passionate in a wonderfully sardonic way, frequently very funny, and above all ultimately musical - in short, the sort of thing the rest of that sorry cadre of soi-disant singer-songwriters can only fantasize about. Long may he reign.
Stanley Fefferman (Showtime Magazine)
"It is a terrific album... The opening tune - "What Have You Done With My Heart" - is so good, it ought to be a big hit. I played it for my son-in-law, who likes Blue Rodeo and he liked it. I played it for my 16 year old grandson who likes Kanye West and Bob Marley, and he liked it. I like to let this tune haunt my head, which it does, quite a bit. And somehow, rhythms or bits of melody of the other Meanwell tunes are called to join the party in my head...
Behind it all is Meanwell's flexible, gentle, capable voice giving music to words that feel sincere. This honest work is shared by Meanwell's band, The Loss Leaders, which includes Rick Whitelaw, Ray Parker, Chad Irschick and Dave MacDougall."
Jurgen Gothe
"Jurgen Gothe would like a copy--another copy--of George's CD because he is tired of having to sneak the DiscDrive play-copy out of the building to listen to the tracks he hasn't yet played on the air, in the car on the way home. So, like, he wants his own copy...
Jurgen Gothe is very grateful the CD came so quickly. It is living in his car and amusing his drive home (which, of course, doesn't coincide with everybody else's drive home, given the nature of the time-zone thing). Were he still the music director at CHAT [The Voice of the Gas City], 1270, Medicine Hat, Alberta, as he once was (in 1960) he would put the CD into heavy rotation."
Stanley Fefferman - (The Live Music Report)
"This album is a rich mixture. Meanwell has listened to a lot of music and absorbed what he needed to forge a style that is unmistakably his own...
His voice is clear and present, and in his attack you can easily hear tones of Mose Allison, Dylan and Lightfoot and Hank Williams and Leonard Cohen (whom he's covered elsewhere), Lyle Lovett and the Beatles.
The proof is in the songs. Thirteen originals here, all marked by, can you believe it, intelligence, and a sensitivity often arrayed in a wry wit. The tempos vary, the personae are multiple, the arrangements are great. The title song is excellent."
iClassics.com
"A terrific new song, "Words That I Want," written by the quartet's George Meanwell..."