You guys gotta check this guy out! I just ordered his CD and he sent me a personal email. I am really digging the song on his MySpace page (link below) called Amazed By You.



Bob Sima .com

MySpace for Bob Sima

This guy is somewhere in the vicinity of Bruce Cockburn, John Martyn, Van Morrison, Jack Johnson, Ray LaMontagne, Jeffrey Foucault, Iron & Wine, Paul Thorn, and Amos Lee...well ok, maybe a little Richard Thompson, John Prine, Marc Broussard, Alexi Murdoch, Donavon Frankenreiter, Marc Cohn, Dolorean, and Peter Mulvey may or may not be mixed in as well.

Seriously, check this guy out!

I'm not sure who's he in the vicinity of, but certainly some of the folks you mentioned. 'sounds good.

Okay, I'm only through the 3.5 songs on this disc and I've gotta say it's even better than I was expecting. This is good music. It's upbeat, but not in the everything's perfect world way. More like Martin Sexton upbeat. This is foot tappin' sing-along music. It's soulful like Marc Broussard. It's got a touch of country, but it's not country, it's new folk. Kind of like Donavon Frankenreiter, with a steel guitar somewhere in the background occasionally. There's nice instrumentation like fiddles, harmonica, organ, piano, dobro, banjo, accordion, and my personal favorite mandolin at different times on different songs. For some reason it reminds me of Sister Hazel's first album, but not quite as rambunctious. Maybe Sister Hazel meets Jack Johnson? At least the first half is not quite as demure as Alexi Murdoch or Dolorean. There's almost some Michael Franks touches here and there, but not in a big city way, maybe in a small town way... It's not dark like Ray Montagne or Jefferey Foucault, but there's a nice touch of sadness to his voice and there's this mellow deepth like Don Williams without the cowbell. There's a healthy obeisance to Van Morrison but he doesn't have that style of voice.

I'm telling you this is good music and I’m diggin’ it! My wife, who's not as into music as I am has already stopped in my office and asked me what I was playing… That's always a good sign!

Edited to add: On the second time through, another comparison popped in my head. He's got kind of a James Taylor thing going on as well.