Live Music Review: Dakota7z7 Pluto @ Close to the Edge

Second Life Live Music Review
Written by Enniv Zarf (RL: Paul Kwo)
Metaverse Music
Dakota7z7 Pluto
Close to the Edge
4.5 stars out of 5 stars

Now we've heard a ton of singer/guitarist and singer/pianist. But once in a while we run into someone who breaks out of that and play something like a mandolin to accompany themselves. Dakota is one such artist and he has a voice of his own.

I actually just met Dakota last night at like 5am in the morning after a really long night having to deal with a ton of things as well as write up that review. Though the next time I do these really early morning reviews, I have got to be more awake and less distracted. That was probably not my most extensive and in depth review ever, but still a good find though.

Dakota told me a little about what is the talk around SL Live Music in terms of me and what. It's fascinating really and I always love to hear what others are thinking and all that good stuff. But it make me change my honesty in review. I was actually having a few talks with a few people around about what reviewing means and what I'm doing. But that's for another article. Back to Dakota.

It's great to hear him play both a guitar as well as a mandolin and to top it off is that he is pretty much flawless from top to bottom. I didn't really catch much of any minor issues or anything in his playing and that's very amazing. I mean I know I'm not flawless myself, but then I play improv where there are no such thing as a mistake. Whew, I'm lucky with that.

Dakota has a great sound and a unique...

country singing voice. He is extremely strong and very good in what he does. His style is fun and is pretty uplifting. Dakota who's real life is Terry Dickerson living in Seattle sings with a country accent

But he's not the Tim Mcgraw type of Texan country, he's accent is a little thinner but sounds a little more rural too. Most importantly though is that Dakota has very strong techniques and very good voice that is very professional sounding. He has a lower voice and he sounds like he loves every moment of it. He makes no pretense to be anything else and sings what he does and does it great. His voice is rich and thick, counter to a lot of the high tenors and high tenors wannabes around these days. So it's nice to hear this kind voice in Second Life singing.

There were some balancing issues between his voice and his instrument that surfaced on the occasion. He mentioned that he was having some technical issues with his interface. Even the best musicians around still have to deal with technical difficulties performing online and it's a side effect we have to put up with. When usually one musician have to run all the technical parts, it can be hard to chase down the problems while performing. I have a pretty complicated setup that involves 3 monitors, 2 computers, 3 sets of keyboards and mouse, an audio interface and a ton of cables. It's really amazing how all these musicians deal with all this all the time here in Second Life. In real life there usually are dedicated techies to deal, but even then it's not always perfect and they only have one thing to worry about. I oncehad a friend in a RL production at the Kodak and they messed up the pros that the Kodak hired messed up the sound like big time. So these little SL mishaps are nothing in perspective.

Dakota does both original tunes as well as covers. Today he did one titled "Angeline" which had a very neat backing track. The synth brass sorta gives off this Rocky feel in the distant background. I'm also about to get ready to run up a flight of stairs now. But in general I'm not a big fan of synth instruments. Synth only works for me when it's done specifically. A friend of mine who does a lot of low budget film scores mix in real instruments with synths to create a more realistic sound. I don't know about the scene in Seattle, but in LA, it's actually affordable to get college musicians to do some recordings for you or even recent grads if you are planning on putting out a real CD. I think it would add so much more substance to a song that's already a great song. I like it and I would love to hear it with real brass, that's all.

Well Dakota is really a fantastic musician and really has a lot to offer especially for those of us who are into country music. And if you're not so sure about Country music, I think Dakota would be a wonderful place to start and get yourself acquainted to it without having to feel like you just got thrown in the middle of a Texas cowboy party.