Wyatt Funderburk is a Nashville musician, songwriter and producer. He’s been behind some of the best power pop of the past few years, producing and mixing for The Wellingtons, The Connection and Kurt Baker most recently. He’s also worked with Bowling For Soup, Linus of Hollywood and Silver Sun. But now Wyatt is on the other side of of the mixing booth crafting his first big solo album.
It’s pretty clear Wyatt has a knack for catchy hook-filled melodies and solid musicianship. Starting with the phrase “How was Your Summer?” we go on a melodic thrill ride with the song “Summer.” Next, “You Know What To Do” is a plea to girl to leave an abusive relationship, a mid-tempo slice of genius that recalls Roger Manning Jr. Each song is done with relatively restrained instrumentation and production, so the songwriting can stand out. Similar to Mike Viola or Adam Schlesinger, Wyatt twists those minor chords in each track, along with a ray of hope in each lyric. The lovely country beat and steel lap on “Feeling Good Tonight” is a welcome shift in tone, the epic “Nights Like This” gets to the heart of the album’s theme, and “Love Will Lead the Way” charms with its Tom Pettyesque rhythm and simple message. Although I felt “Try To Be” really deserved a lush multi-layered treatment, each track is a gem and it easily gets a nod for my top ten of 2013 list.
Now usually I like to wait for a full release before a review, but his one is too good to miss. Full release on August 27.
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I was also going to echo the comment about Second Saturday. Both their LP and EP were fantastic! Looking forward to seeing how similar this is to his songwriting back then- thanks for the heads up!
It’s interesting to remember that Wyatt led the amazing band Second Saturday.