DEANO – “Crazistan” carries his top-drawer songwriting

Dean Patrick Schumacher aka DEANO, was born in Southfield, Michigan (suburb of Detroit). Influenced by Rock & Roll, Blues, Disco, R & B, Funk and Country during the 70s, he picked up the guitar as a Christmas gift when he was 10. And then promptly quitted playing for the next 30 years. At 40 he rediscovered his passion for the guitar and writing music. DEANO focuses on releasing singles, as he says it allows him the freedom to be more spontaneous and immediate in his music making, without having to force himself create other songs that will fit together for an album release.

Currently DEANO is promoting his single, “Crazistan”, a song written from the perspective of a 21-year-old soldier in the United States Army who has been deployed to Afghanistan to fight in the war. Styled as a letter to his mother back home, the narrator laments the woes of his predicament, as a Private E3, in a desolate outpost.

“Crazistan” shows the compatibility in DEANO’s primary talents. He’s a terrific guitarist, and his voice is powerful and honest while the song carries his top-drawer songwriting to sustain these elements. DEANO has got the seasoned sound of a vet but the hunger of rookie, all of which gives his music a fiery edge. This is a sound we’ve heard before but recorded with a freshness and verve that uplifts the listener.

“Crazistan” is full of stuff that would sound out of fashion in a lesser songwriter’s hands, but DEANO makes this music sound entirely relevant. He takes notes from the classic Americana canon, and makes those familiar sounds feel fresh. He fills a void you might not have realized was there, and his subject matter resonates so much with this song, it never feels like it’s from any other time but the present.

Listening to the narrative, you get the sense that DEANO is looking at the mess of a world that surrounds him and either feels angry, helpless, or both – something a lot of us can probably relate to right now, even if in a whole different scenario. DEANO fires back at his situation, asking: “Can you tell me what kind of man, kills he’s own brother in his holy land. What kind of man?”

At a time where so much music captures the darkness and downfall of American principles, DEANO puts his own spin on the phenomena. Often on “Crazistan”, he sounds like a distraught raconteur of a perpetual trauma afflicting the world, clinging on dearly via every lyric and melody. His soaring vocal tendencies and impeccable lyrical turns are enviable by the most prestigious of contemporaries.

DEANO’s music is articulate and vivid, simple and yet able to present profound ideas. He may not be attempting to reinvent the wheel, but his eloquent storytelling at its best are the moments where this record really soars.

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