Denison Witmer
Are You a Dreamer?
(The Militia Group Records)
By Jimmy Fowler
The world today seems too mean and nasty for the likes of Philadelphia-based singer-songwriter Denison Witmer. Indeed, if his friend and sometime collaborator, well-loved musician Sufjan Stevens, hadn’t already begun to make mainstream inroads with his own brand of gentle earnestness, it would be tempting to warn Witmer that he’d better prepare for some critical snarls and sneers to accompany any popular success that might come with his new album Are You a Dreamer? Produced by Don Peris, Dreamer is a gossamer-delicate collection of neo-folk reveries that’s distinguished by the songwriter’s refusal to indulge in self-consciously poetic images. Impressively, Witmer seems to realize that good song lyrics and good poetry are not the same thing, that the former relies far more on the impact of simplicity mixed with harmony and melody, while attempts at the latter steal focus from the music and drag the song down into ostentation. Witmer has uncommonly true aim when it comes nailing direct, succinct, and personal sentiments. The results are observations like this one from “Little Flowers”: “White is not surrender / Despite what you’ve been told / It’s clouds of hope that fall on me.”
Cynics may gag, but if they do, they’re ignoring the undertow of despair that flows beneath the deceptively placid surface of Are You a Dreamer? The heartbreaking “Everything But Sleep” starts out as a check list of all the things Witmer loves in his bedroom, then confronts him with the realization that he can’t quiet his mind long enough to rest there. Tunes like “East From West” and “Castle and Cathedral” suggest he may be recording three decades too late — his professed Jackson Browne fixation is very evident in a nasally, Xanax-drowsy voice that would’ve found heavy rotation on ‘70s AM radio. In the current cacophony of war-time media static and pop-chart braggadocio, Are You a Dreamer? could fairly be scorned as a navel-gazing dodge from reality or hailed as cool water to those thirsty for a little respite. It all depends on where your head’s at right now.
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