Stephen Inglis
Learning You By Heart
(self-released)

Born and raised in Honolulu, Stephen Inglis as much plays Hawaiian slack key guitar as he does acoustic and electric guitars, harmonica and sings on his new album, Learning You By Heart. “Blind with Haste” opens with its deep organ from Eric Peterson, soft bass and Stephen Inglis’ sweet voice over the top of the concoction. Erika Elona’s harmonies are well-placed here, as they are throughout these 13 songs. Tom Piranha Gierman’s train-like snare shuffle lays at the bottom of “Lay Your Dagger Down” with its jaunty chorus and some sweet bending lead electric guitar phrases. This is very good playing here indeed, reminding me of Clapton. We get a talking vocal and slowly strummed guitar on “Don’t Postpone Joy,” a slow love song duet that features the odd warble of Patti Cathcart-Andress. A Cash-ian “Cold Sunday” acoustic guitar shunkins with Paul Sato’s banjo and some fast mandolin playing from Kilin Reese on this best tune for me on Learning You By Heart. “My Latest Offering” is a big, sweeping tune with a laid back beat, full harmony vocals and mandolin plinks flowing around soft verses and a big, singable chorus; another damn good song! “Wildfire” is a swing-able love song, pretty, again with a strong singable chorus, this one staccato fun and the slightly overly long, “The Long Run” ends, with harmonic and acoustic behind Inglis’ delicate vocal. Stephen Inglis is a songwriter/player/singer certainly worth learning about…by heart of by ear.

You can listen to the album here.