[UPDATED] Live Music Review: Strummer Vultee @ BarrioBeat Productions

Second Life Live Music Review
Written by Enniv Zarf (RL: Paul Kwo)
Metaverse Music
Strummer Vultee
BarrioBeat Productions SLRUL
4 stars out of 5 stars

I think I'm ending up with a Country day here, two in a row. Mostly actually it's because I haven't had time earlier in the day to review more people and I arrived back on Second Life a little after 10pm so I didn't get a lot of notices this hour. I was playing a concert earlier today, Avant-Garde improv, extremely different and then I was at my brother's birthday dinner. Contrary to popular beliefs, I do have a real life still.

Well I didn't feel like digging through the actual Group Notice windows in the groups. I hate the fact that they are not in reverse Chronological order even when I click it by date. It's kind of a mess there. I hope Second Life fix that soon.

So the only IM that popped up for me was Strummer Vultee. So I really had no other choice but to check him out. I wasn't sure what I was going to expect. The notice says he'll amaze me. It used the words awesome, wonderful and beautiful to describe him and his music. Whenever I see this I always wonder is this really going to be as good as it says. In fact this reminds me of the issue that I was talking with a few musicians in Second Life about, amateur versus professional performance. I'll post a full article specially for that, but basically I came to the conclusion that if you advertise yourself as a professional, meaning if you post on any public group saying you're great in any way shape and form and not call yourself an amateur, then you are projecting yourself as a professional and you better deliver.

Strummer was off to a rocky start in the beginning where his voice was on and off. But for the record he was mostly on, about 95% of the time, and as the concert went on he became more solid and secure. He does have a good voice too that works very well with country music. The shaky bits occasionally came back but perhaps it's because when he sounds great he sounds really great that these awkward places just stuck out like a sore thumb. In the end he is a really good singer that's pretty solid overall and delivers a pretty good performance.

[UPDATE: After reading my own article and I realized I didn't say one critical thing that I started to say. I have an absolute problem with false advertising. Although I think Strummer at least at the performance I heard was good, but he's not amazing. He was only on 95% of the time, meaning notes. He was on pitch not amazing 95% of the time. The post said he'll amaze me, well he didn't amaze me for sure. I wanted to make that clear. Sometimes I forget what I started off with on these first look on the fly reviews. But I do look back and the figure it out from here.]

Strummer's singing does...

...have a very good sound that can sound pretty professional most of the time. But then there are these moments where he just sounds like an average karaoke singer at a local bar. So if he could just find those moments and eradicate them I think he can be pretty unstoppable in his singing. When he is on, he's on. He does sound pretty awesome, something I can definitely hear off the major radio station.[Update: I was informed that he uses a lot of pitch modulating things which actually was somewhere in the back of my mind. But I get distracted a lot while reviewing because people will only IM me when I'm reviewing for some reason. Reflecting on his performance, I don't think he'll be unstoppable if he relies on these pitch modulating stuff to fix his definite intonation issues that were popping up everywhere.]

Unlike Dakota, Strummer is a whole lot more country. And BarrioBeat Production's decor really almost made me feel like I was at some barn yard party of some Texan weekend barbecue. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing, but it fit the bill so I'm not going to complain. Strummer sings though a lot of cover songs, and I'm not sure if he has any original. I hope he does cause I think he can really have some real fun with those. But I could be mistaking, maybe he did sing some and I didn't even realize it since I am no encyclopedia when it comes to country music. Just some here and there.

I think Strummer's strongest suit is his production sound and the balance between his voice and all the instruments. I think he did a fantastic job blending it along with even the backup vocals really created this really great sound that's very well done. [Update: So this is where the whole production modulation thing was in the back of my mind. His voice is produced and in my book, that's a major no/no. Keep in mind this is my first time hearing him and I am human, I don't catch everything. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. I have missed people playing prerecorded MIDI stream before on the first hearing, but catch them on the second concert. That's why second looks are important for me. I am actually in the middle of trying to confirm whether a pianist I reviewed is doing that right now.]

He does also vary his song choices between backing tracks songs [UPDATE: It's not a backing track as I was told. But the overproduced voice is a big no/no on my books. It's like listening to Paris Hilton sing.] along with just guitar accompaniment. And he does play with his voice a lot like what I would expect a country singer to do. When he sang "I got a brand new pair of rose" I think that was the name of the song as I couldn't quite make out the word rose, he really did play with the falsetto range of his voice and it was pretty neat.

One thing I do wonder is that why he doesn't reveal his real life identity. I often wonder why some good musicians would not reveal that. I guess they only care to perform here and they're not about creating a real life fan base to help push forward their music career. Well that's perfectly fine to and I have no problem with that as long as you are good. [UPDATE: I did find out that his real identity is Robert Combs and his website is now updated here too. I was told it was at his group. So I now know I need to dig into people groups too to find out. They better have their names on their groups or I'd be going crazy trying to figure out what's what.]

So I gave him a 4 star instead of a 4.5 mainly because of the rocky start that had me a bit worried. Originally I was going to give him a little lower rating but he really picked himself back up. I think he's a solid singer and a really good country singer so definitely if this is your thing he is someone you should definitely check out. He isn't perfect in my books, but when he's one he's so good I think most of us don't really mind the little bits of flaw. After all we're human and we all make mistakes. I know I do, I just like to point them out. [Update: Don't get me wrong, I don't think Strummer is awful or anything. He's just not amazing at all. And if I see him continue to use those terms to advertise him, you'll be sure to hear from me again and again and again until he stops. He's just have good production values that covers his intonation problems. That's ok if you advertise it as such. It's not ok to call him as the best and greatest voice in Second Life.]