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South Florida's News and Views 
Posted June 27, 2003

The Feathermerchants: Unarmed Against the Dark
(Innocent 12th St. Records/Ryko Distribution)

Some records were tailor-made for Sunday mornings�sensual, seductive, hypnotic grooves that gently mesmerize and caress their listeners as the morning stretches lazily into afternoon. The new album by the Feathermerchants is such an album, eleven easy and engaging songs that drift along with an alluring quality all their own.

Graced by the graceful and expressive vocals of singer Shannon Kennedy, the band brings to mind such silken combos as Renaissance, the Sundays, October Project and the Cowboy Junkies in the way the melodies soar and sway. Kennedy�s singing is buttressed by rich layers of acoustic guitars and supple keyboards that straddle the line between new age, easy listening and folk. Yet despite their willowy timbre, the material has substance, as immediately evidenced in �All the Way Home,� the beguiling soft rocker that opens the album. �Dan,� a song that recounts a soldier�s experience in the first World War, is mellow and exotic, with a delicate grace all its own. �Brooklyn Ferry� and �Reptile Mind� sound as if they were transported from the British Isles, with a rich, emotional conviction that the late Sandy Denny, Beth Orton or Steeleye Span�s Maddy Prior might find particularly appealing.

Unarmed Against the Dark, due in July, is one of those special efforts that dazzles the listener with its shimmering ethereal delivery and lilting spiritual sensibilities. And anyone who hears it will immediately fall under its spell.

For more information, visit www.feathermerchants.com.

http://www.entnews.com/newmusic.html