Lio @ Crashin' In
Wow, someone cheer this guy up. Chad life is not so sad ("Dry Your Tears"). Although Chad is making melancholy music, it's done so beautifully that you forgive him. Fueled with a country edge and love for Merle Haggard, Chad's songs are truly captivating. Chad also plays in Hula.



J-Sin @ Smother.net
Chad King’s lap-steel, pedal steel fusion of old country roots rock and modern indie rock is one of the latest offerings from CD-R label KEEP Recordings. An interesting side note is that all of their albums range in the “limited to 50 to 100” range and are all hand-signed by the artists. They insist that this makes the CD more of a keepsake and I have to absolutely concur. Chad King blends tunes with a sense of melancholy not felt since well forever. He also plays in the New York City based band Hula and resides in Brooklyn. Occasionally throwing in some samples of intelligent indie rock, he presents a vibe of apartment lo-fi roots rock that will only help further the beautiful landscape and diversity of independent artists in the New York City area.



Steve @ reallyrather
They're handmade, home-recorded, there's only fifty of them and reallyrather has no.32 - better move swiftly to bag "Love Your Engine" by Chad King from boutique label KEEP Recordings. Peddling lovingly packaged full-length CDRs of original material at just $6 a go, this admirable new enterprise out of Tucson, AZ. Gets pretty close to bullseye with only it's second release. Iron & Wine -meets - JJ Cale, anyone?

Well, sort of. Branching out from his main gig Hula, guitarist Chad King has crafted a fine set of low-key, melodic country/folk, or anti-folk if you will. The model ethic of JJ Cale is applied: eleven tunes in a little over half-an-hour, pared of all extraneous detail but still warm and winning. And each one comes with a proper ending, always a good sign; laid back but definite, loose but focused. Most of the tracks share a similar palette: acoustic strumming, dark-hued vocals/harmonies, subtle rhythm section and fantastically atmospheric pedal steel winding around it all like smoke from the embers.

The swaying opener is called "Tired" which might stand as a motif for the emotional feel of much of this set; sweetly wearied. The folkier "Fading Glow" follows, melting into a beautiful instrumental refrain. And there's plenty more like this - "Settle Down", "Blue As Can Be", "Salt Mouth", "Forever Down" - blissful, wistful stuff.

But it's not all dreamy, languorous folk twang. The shuffling "Circle K" picks up the tempo and, appropriately enough, "Lucky Man" is positively jaunty. Most stylistcally exceptional of all is "Dry Your Tears", a remarkably authentic slice of country soul which sounds like something Curtis Mayfield and Otis Redding might have cooked up between them. You join in the raspy chorus as if you've know it forever. This sort of thing gives pastiche a good name.

These are home-recordings and you can tell but it won't matter. There's nothing on "Love Your Engine" to really make you want to grab passers-by and scream, 'You just gotta hear this!', but plenty to make you glow inwardly having found it. Were this a more 'regular' release retailing at a more 'regular' price, would reallyrather still be as interested? Comfortably, yes...



Brad Rose @ Foxy Digitalis
Most of you don't live in Oklahoma, so you'll probably have a hard time relating to a lot of what I'm about to say. Bear with me though, because you might learn something in the end. I live in a place that doesn’t just revere country music but worships it. People like Garth Brooks are gods here. Now, the good thing about this is that people like Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, and Hank Williams are treated as royalty; if you speak their name in vain, you've got an ass whipping waiting for you. So I've been around country music most of my life and have only recently embraced its roots. The Man in Black has always been a legend to me, but my respect for Merle Haggard has increased exponentially in the last two years. Enter Chad King. There are elements of this record that truly remind me of Haggard, especially the baritone in King's voice. His music would be greatly appreciated in this part of the country as it blends the lines between pop music and country. He's definitely on to something here.

Tracks like "Blue As Can Be" and "I'll Be Grown Up" highlight the low notes King can hit, and these are the tracks on which I'm most reminded of Merle Haggard. They're simple, but wonderful. I can't help but imagine a middle-aged country singer at the end of his career sitting on his porch in Kentucky, singing songs to his children. "I'll be grown up when you come home," he sings in the chorus. There's something sad about the moment, but ultimately fulfilling at the same time. Past lives are laid to rest and new ones are sparked.

Did you ever drive around late at night in your car just so you wouldn't have to be home? I did, and liked to get lost in suburban neighborhoods; it was always interesting to see whose lights were on at midnight on a Tuesday. "Forever Down" is the perfect soundtrack to that lonely, late night drive. Hushed vocals and mellow acoustic guitars glide along simply. "Circle K" is just the opposite. Instead of solitude, you're with your friends on a Friday night and don't have a care in the world. "I'm just a kid inside, driving in this car of mine, and I ain't gonna stop for you," he says in the opening. Many of the moments on this album remind me of being in my car. Sometimes you're sad and tired, other times you just don't give a fuck. You're not give-somebody-the-finger carefree, you're just oblivious.

"Dry Your Tears" has King singing in a raspy blues howl with slow guitars and light drumming. It's one of the best songs here and takes me back to a different time. I honestly feel transported to the '50s listening to this. Whispered "Boom-sha-bop, boom-boom-sha-bop"s in the background wouldn't be out of place at any drive-in where all the girls are wearing poodle skirts. Excellent. The opener, "Tired," is another gem, laced with pedal steel. As the song slips from verse to chorus, the visions change. Everything from a hot summer stroll to soaring above clouds in dreams is invoked by the music. It's a smooth and beautiful song.

Time warps and lonesome drives, this is an album of moodswings. Keep Recordings scores again with another quality release and excellent packaging to boot. Chad King is a member of the band Hula, which I hope is half as good as his solo work. He writes simple songs but accentuates them with additional instrumentation and other subtle nuances that make this a really good record. Supposedly Chad is an avid fan of Merle Haggard and is further studying the pedal steel. This is good news for all of us because those influences have made this record a minor treasure.

On his debut solo album, Chad King, frontman for the band Hula, explores his musical roots and influences, mixing equal doses of classic pop, country, folk, and rock to create a melancholy and personal album. Love Your Engine is a low-key affair, focused on King's acoustic guitar and personal vocals, but the range of instruments featured here includes drums, acoustic and electric guitars, and plenty of lap steel.



Jeff Marsh @ Delusions of Adequacy
For those who have had too much "alt" in their country, King reinvigorates the modern independent country genre. The focus of such music has always been the strong songwriting, and King has the ability to write a strong country song, as evidenced on the flowing “Tired,” the quiet, acoustic "I'll Be All Grown Up" and the down-home Westnern feeling "Settle Down."

But this is not merely a country album. King's influences clearly range from Nick Drake ("Forever Down") to Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen ("Dry Your Tears") to Simon & Garfunkel ("Fading Glow"). Elements of classic Byrds, Beach Boys, and the Boss can all be heard on Love Your Engine, as can hints of modern bands like Low (see the lovely “Tonight with Lines”) or Elliott Smith (see “Salt Mouth”). It takes a talented songwriter to mix such diverse influences into a cohesive album, and King has done it on his first solo effort.

Although country tendencies were never my favorite mixings with rock, some artists just do it so well I can’t help but enjoy their work. Chad King proves he can mix all of his influences quite well, and while many will label this a singer/songwriter album, it feels like more than that. This is a nice album, and the appearance – as is the focus for this new, young label – is similarly impressive.



Han @ KindaMuzik
Translated by: Jur - Thanks!
If you can go by the bulletins on the internet the "boutique label" is the place to discover interesting new music. A boutique label is a label that releases CD's in small quantities, generally with handmade sleeves and sells the CD's through the internet. KEEP Recordings is such a boutique label. KEEP prefers quality above quantity and releases its CD's in editions of 50/100 copies, of course numbered and with handmade sleeves. One of the first releases from KEEP is this CD from the New Yorker, Chad King.

King is a member of the band Hula, a band that makes a kind of slowcore. It's another Hula then the Cabaret Voltaire sounds of the 80's. Confusing nevertheless, always the same names. You can also hear the melancholie style of Hula on "Love Your Engine", but covered with a tasty Americana flavor. There is an important role reserved for the steel guitar, played by Chad himself. It is down tempo and the atmosphere on "Love Your Engine" that reminds one a bit of the work of for example the Ashtray Hearts. The record was simply recorded at home and that gives a little bit of a clear sound, which is very well appropriate with the total atmosphere of the CD.

King has an excellent voice, in which sometimes you can hear elements of Merle Haggard, and with "Dry Your Tears" he lets us hear a bit of country-soul with nothing but authenticity. With "Love Your Engine", Chad King has delivered us an americana record of rare class.

Don't wait to long to obtain this CD because the 50 copies are run out before you know it.



Bryan @ Shmat
I listened to this CD about 5 times already, and I think I could listen to it many more. I just can't get enough pedal steel nowadays. Chad King's Love Your Engine is such a strikingly beautiful album, filled with slow shots of that woozy pedal steel and melancholy vocals that are at once innovative and nostalgic. Amazingly, King apparently recorded much of this album in an assortment of Brooklyn living rooms. It certainly doesn't sound like it. This kicks the tail off so many other throwback country albums, not that I've listened to a whole load of them. But anyway, how do the songs sound? Amazing.

"Tired" is a great opening track with pedal steel ruling the dips and peaks of King's voice, so weary with emotion that it sounds like he's come up from the bottom of the ocean with the answer to life's most important questions only to find that the world he's lived in has changed immeaurably beyond recognition. Oh well, he shrugs, and sings another great song. "Fading Glow" is a beautifully picked acoustic number, similar to something Norway's Kings of Convenience might have written. The character of his voice often reminded me of Canada's mope-folky Hayden, although he definitely doesn't have the extra low baritone that Hayden does. But just when I thought that I might have figured out how the singing is going to progress on this album, he throws out "Dry Your Tears" which sounded something like crusty old Joe Cocker. His voice, so hoarse on this song, is ancient against the backdrop of sparse drums and guitar arpeggios. Wonder Years theme song, move on over. Hehe.

There are so many great songs on this album, I can't possibly talk about all of them here. Not a clunker in the bunch really. I admired the gentle waltz-feel of both "Salt Mouth" and "Tonight With Lines". Some of the tracks seem to be kindred spirits with Norfolk & Western (member Tony Moreno also has a CD out on Keep Recordings) or even Athens, GA's folk-rocker extraordinaire Vic Chesnutt. "Blue As Can Be" is approached tenderly, and though it consists of mainly two or three chords maintains an almost creepy preternatural awareness that is really interesting. Like I said before, Hayden springs to mind here, in his ability to take extremely simple chords and make them over into powerfully emotional folk songs. "Lucky Man" combines some of the melodies of John Lennon's "Jealous Guy" with Wilco's auteuristic country leanings. "Forever Down", which on first impression is a simple folk blues tune is healed and helped once again by King's amazing voice. Whispery without a doubt, like comfort pillows dredged in echoes of time, this is a voice to reckon with.

We really need more albums like this. It's been a sort of cruddy year; we lost Elliott Smith. People still judge music by Britney Spears and American Idol. Look at Iraq, etc. Chad King isn't going to fix any of the problems, but man, his album was enough to pick me up if for only one or two days. When he's not putting out his own superb songs, King also contributes guitar and pedal steel to New York's Hula and if they sound anything like him, I'll be wanting to check them out as well. Put out on my latest favorite CD-R label, Tucson's Keep Recordings, the album has a run of only 50 copies. That's pretty much the mantra of the label, that each release should be special, a keepsake if you will. So you'll need to act fast to get your hands on this one...



Matt @ Indieville
Chad King's Love Your Engine is the second release on the newly-formed KEEP Recordings CDR label, dedicated to limited edition, handmade releases of high quality. Their previous release, Tony Moreno's Leftovers From a Wake, impressed me quite a bit, so needless to say I was looking forward to reviewing this record. And - believe it or not - my [ridiculously high] expectations were surpassed!

Love Your Engine is the definitive home-taped country-pop album. Chad King seamlessly blends unbearably beautiful pop melodies with a hearty dose of twang and his own wonderfully lo-fi approach. You'll be amazed to learn that this disc was limited to fifty copies - I could see it becoming the next hit on Secretly Canadian. KEEP is certainly earning its keep, if you'll excuse the pun.

Although Love Your Engine is very country-oriented, there is nonetheless some strong variation on this disc. Tunes like the pretty "Dry Your Tears" and "Settle Down" blend country elements with a more folk-based approach. Other tunes, like "Salt Mouth" and "Lucky Man" are much more pop-based; the former is a monumental slab of epic folk-pop - it feels absolutely gigantic, yet still miraculously cozy and relaxing. The wide array of influences makes this an ideal purchase for enthusiasts of independent pop, country, and folk music - and should thus garner it a broad selection of fans.

I am just in awe of what Chad King has created with Love Your Engine. This is one of the best CDR releases I've heard in a long, long time.