The stark, sad-eyed woman who is presented on the cover of Harmonica Sounds acts as a perfect backdrop to the music presented on this, Liberty Hall Collective’s first full-length album. The 12 songs collected here, with approximately one exception (Kamron Warden’s sincere love letter, “A Ti”), hide under their veneer of pop prowess tales of loneliness, isolation, fear, worry, confusion, and lost love.
From the soaring melody and crushing end-of-relationship poetry of Brett Pongratz’ “I Gave My Love A Bird” to the murky blues-rock story of a rock-n-roll rise gone wrong that is found in Chase Harrison’s “City Song” to the pining strings and “forest of confusion and pain” found in Warden’s “Stars and Galaxies”, the prevailing darkness lends to a wistful feel.
Another feel of the album is one of eclecticness. The variety of different genres presented here is vast, including the watery, Joni-Mitchell-esque “Out There”, the chugging-train country of “Ballad of the Outlaw Jameson Boone”, and the upbeat pop-punk seen in the album’s finale, Pongratz' “I Don’t Mind”.
So here it is: the cumulative effort of three proficient musicians and songwriters, firing on all cylinders. Brett Pongratz, Chase Harrison, and Kamron Warden proudly present Harmonica Sounds.