Chris Berardo & The DesBerardos - Ignoring All The Warning Signs (2006)

Chris Berardo embodies everything I love about poplar music - a pleasing voice, beautiful melodies and hooks, well crafted lyrics. Shades of The Eagles and Poco combine with a Southern rock sensibility, creating a fresh sound unlike the usual cookie cutter country-rock of today.

The rocking “Everybody Swings Around Here” is an immediate pick for my favorite track, but truth be told, I love the whole album, from the melodic “The One," to the top 40 country “hit waiting to happen,” “So Good So Far,” it’s all good.

Chris Berardo is a very good songwriter with an obvious gift for crafting melody lines and home-spun lyrics and his vocal reminds me of times of a more controlled Drive By Truckers sound - familiar, but less garage band/Stones thrash.

“Never The Same” is another memorable track, as is the infectious ”I Will Love Again,” and the bluesy “BarStool, “ complete with a very cool acapella opening verse from Berardo. Pedal steel, mandolin, banjo, fiddle and harp co-exist with acoustic and electric guitar in a beautiful tapestry of sound. Nowhere is it more evident than in the album’s final track, “September Prayer,” a beautiful new point of view on the 9/11 tragedy. Berardo and his band have crafted a fine album that should garner lots of attention. We can only hope. It’s better than 90 percent of the music on today’s country radio.

Track List:

01 - The One
02 - So Good, So Far
03 - Never The Same
04 - I Will Love Again
05 - Everybody Swings Around Here
06 - Forty Years
07 - One Silver Rider
08 - Save My Life
09 - Passenger Side
10 - Barstool
11 - September Prayer
12 - Bonus Track

Download includes front cover