Dawn Mitschele’s music is comfortable and smooth. Easily accessible on bandcamp, Mitschele presents a relaxing brand of easy-listening rock that will make avid fans of many, many readers. Her style will be welcome to fans of 1970s rock of Fleetwood Mac or The Eagles. Her album, though just an EP, has a nice balance to it with a consistent sound of soft rock.
The first song “Lamplighter” sports great harmonies and an easy-listening rock feel. The second track, the album’s title track, “Love Remains” has a bluesier quality to it. The tone puts listeners in the mood of acoustic rocker Jennifer Knapp. The vocal improvs on “Love Remains” are particularly exciting and show off Mitschele’s vocal control. The lyrics of the song are about committing to a lifetime of love together and, again, seems to fit the genre of easy-listening rock quite well.
The jazzy “The Queen” is the make-or-break song on the album and Mitschele really makes it work. The tone of the song is exotic and foreign, but Mitschele really gives it the flavor that it needs. Her tone is jazzy, but still clear. She doesn’t find a need to unnecessarily alter her own voice. What is ultimately a song about a bit of a harlot, Mitchele’s lyrics are poetic and fun. “She’ll treat you just like a king yeah, she’ll give you everything. That is until the next better thing comes along, then she’ll be gone.”
“Once and Again Friend” is a smart song. It’s snappy and pointed throughout. Listeners can easily relate to the song. It strikes us as the kind of song that ought to make it onto mix albums for coffeehouses and clubs. It’s relaxing and the harmonies are fantastic. It steps a bit out of the genre of the rest of the album, but it does so in a particularly good way. The unrequited love obvious in the song is tragic in all the right ways. The spoken section of the song is a bit quirky, but it seems to work with the funky bass present in the song. It’s soft soul done right.
The last track “This Time Next Year” has a stronger folk flavor to it, but Mitschele’s vocal tone shaping is powerfully jazz again. This is not the sort of Etta James jazz standard readers might be envisioning. It is, rather, a way of shaping the sound to have an edge to it. Mitschele does this in such a way that gives her range and sound a beautiful shape. The duskiness with which she sings “this time next year” at the end of the chorus is just… indescribably good. We strongly recommend you give it a listen.
Mitschele’s album comes to us at a good time. Her unique sound will satisfy many of our readers that might be frustrated with some of the redundancy in the Indie music world. Mitschele’s originally on a well-produced album puts her in a good place to be very successful. If she continues to write these mature albums with strong lyrics and her special vocals, listeners will be satisfied. Listen… easy… and enjoy.
Each of Dawn Mitschele‘s releases gets richer than the last. I’ve been a fan of hers since seeing her open for Edwin McCain in January 2009, which was my re-awakening, of sorts, to a passion for the work of the singer-songwriter-storyteller.
This review is spot-on — and I echo the comment on timing. Meeting her was serendipitous, both in chance and in getting to hear her develop her sound.