Style: indie rock, hard rock, folk rock
Label: Ante Up Audio
Year: 2006
Home: Florida
Members: JP Corwyn ~ vocals/acoustic guitar
Bill Mercurio ~ electric guitar
Karlin McNeill ~ bass
Brian Highsmith ~ drums
Additional: Joey Hann ~ percussion
Michael Seifert ~ keyboards/guitars/percussion/b. vocals
Sam Getz, Block, John Fegyversei, Jimmy Weaver ~ guitars
On vocals & acoustic guitar New York native, now removed to Florida, J.P. Corwyn is a storyteller of very personal & unique tales of worry, fear, loss, sadness & mischievous mysterious dreams & meetings.
In Plain Sight follows his debut EP with an all out rocking affair of ballads & rockers swirling together in a bubble of Stone Temple Pilots, Creed, Buckcherry & Toad The Wet Sprocket mixed with a reclaiming of the title 'indie rock' from the 90's when it meant music of an underground nature, an emotional edge, a lack of flash & a whole lotta fun ... not the maudlin overly-serious dull pop rock it's come to represent. Corwyn is legally blind. It comes up in his press releases via tongue-in-cheek humor, like "how can you be so blind as to not have heard of JP Corwyn". Okay, he's blind. What's the big deal? Music has been full of talented blindmen from its earliest days including Blind Willie McTell, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Doc Watson, Boccelli, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Jeff Healey, Ronnie Milsap & George Shearing to name a few. ... & there are countless other musicians who are blind to how to run their career successfully. ... Blind doesn't necessarily make a musician better, though I'm sure they'll all claim it does. But, Corwyn does do what many other blind musicians don't do & that is use his blindness in his music. Stevie Wonder, with or without the Funk Brothers, never really sang about being blind & the troubles it brought. Perhaps he thought nobody could relate to his situation or didn't want to hear about it. I believe Corwyn has suffered with such feelings many times. But, instead of perpetually suffering in silence & loneliness he turned his feelings into songs, like every good songwriter, & didn't worry if anyone could relate or not to the dreams that cluttered his mind. The irony is loneliness & worry are universal & Corwyn's lyrics are anything but maudlin, indulgent or frightening. Corwyn often performs with only a voice and guitar but has pulled together a band for
In Plain Sight. At times it sounds too much like other bands, mentioned previously, & loses some of the offbeat character of Corwyn's live show. The 2011 follow-up
The White Cane Conspiracy follows Corwyn into a more acoustic territory & one hopes brings in a bit of the homespun spirit of the live show.
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