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Luke Otto

Calling; Al Julson and Larry Past

Pearly acoustic guitar sets off the title song in the album 'Calling' by Al Julson and Larry Past, succeeded by Past's Tom Petty-like intonations. With clear lyrics, a hypnotic chord progression, "Calling" is a convincing reason to sit down and binge this album's 45 minutes of Wisconsin Talent.


Julson's light and ethereal vocals in 'Don't Play With Kate' are wonderfully executed and are on par with this duo's guitar abilities.


The keys in 'Only You' provided by Mike Vhalhakis are effective and are a welcome addition to the Julson/Past pairing.


Julson and Past have discovered a sweet conconction of chord progressions, melodic phrasings and overall structures that achieve the 'acoustic, folk, rock' sensibility advertised on the album cover without missing a beat.


Covers of 'Wagon Wheel', 'Mrs. Brown', and 'Under the Milky Way' are foot tappingly good. Additional help on this album is provided by Mike Shlenker on electri guitar and John Smith on percussion.


Word on the street is Larry Past will be releasing another album late this spring called 'Deep from the Past', and after hearing a couple of songs in person, I'm looking forward to getting the full album in my hands.

Photo by Marie Past, Design by Kathy O'Leary


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