David James Stewart is a singer/songwriter from Minneapolis, the music hotbed of the Upper Midwest. After one listen, I was all over this record. The production, which Stewart handled himself, is almost perfect. The record sounds great, so Stewart the producer/engineer gets a thumbs up. After listening a few more times, I found a couple of things that kept me from giving the record a full endorsement. Vocally, Stewart is cut from the same cloth as Matt Kearney. This would be fine except for one problem: Stewart's songwriting isn't a strong point. He leans hard on worn out cliches and imagery, making otherwise strong tracks seem a bit weaker than they should be. Again, this is a wonderful record to have playing as background music and makes a great first impression, but additional listening may disappoint.

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