Donavon Frankenreiter
Pass It Around
Lost Highway
By Mike Randall
It’s been a pretty good year for acoustic-based bands that traverse the endless fringe of folk music. Bon Iver’s winter-y introspection and Fleet Foxes’ exploration of CSN-meets-Beach Boys pop are just two stellar examples of bands adding elements to a genre that for years has been dubbed nothing more than ‘guy standing on stage with acoustic guitar.’ Even oft-overlooked and much-maligned frat-rock, where a campfire groove accompanied by good-time lyrics reigns supreme, is getting its share of the critical spotlight with recent releases from Jack Johnson and now from his pal, Donavon Frankenreiter.
On his third full-length, Pass It Around, Frankenreiter’s feet don’t appear as firmly planted in the sand and saltwater as Johnson’s, but he’s every bit the surf-centric mellow So-Cal dude making music for the lively. Whereas Johnson at times makes it feel like there’s other things he’d rather be doing than playing and telling ocean tales, Frankenreiter comes across like a stoner buddy creating music to empty his heart and soul. He’s the older, wiser troubadour who’s seen more and done more, and realizes life isn’t solely about big waves and sandy beaches (although most of it is). Whereas Johnson’s found freedom, Frankenreiter’s looking for it.
Kicking off the record with the line “Don’t look back it won’t do any good/Don’t look ahead you’ll just be misunderstood,” Frankenreiter does not cloud his mission in the slightest. It’s good-time, up-tempo folk-rock about living in the moment and searching for answers during a time of international struggle. Frankenreiter knows the truth is out there somewhere (“Your Heart”), and he’s going to find it. Throughout the course of the brief album’s 10 songs, Frankenreiter takes us to a party (“Too Much Water”), travels the open road, not knowing where he’s going but leaving his life behind (the breezy, Buffett-esque “Come With Me”), saying hello to strangers on the street (“Sing A Song”) and wanting everyone to get along and have a good time (“Come Together,” “Pass It Around”). The record’s title track, which is geared toward distributing love and friendship and not necessarily a healthy dose of cannabis (although I’d guess that’s a part of it), is sure to have beer glasses chiming at college parties and co-eds hugging anyone within arm’s reach. On tunes like “Someone’s Something,” Frankenreiter tailor-makes choruses for such festivities with lines like, “Everybody here’s waiting on something.”
It’s ironic that Frankenreiter sings so frequently about friends because his supporting cast here clearly propels him from being ‘guy with guitar.’ Eric Brigmond’s keyboards inject a heavy dose of soul in tandem with Frankenreiter’s M. Ward-meets-Citizen-Cope vocals to create a Steely Dan for the surf set. His backers make the funky soul possible on tracks like “Hit the Ground Running,” and he also gets help on harmonica from G. Love (“Sing A Song,” with G. Love sounding like a member of the Coral Reefer Band), slide and vocal flourishes from Ben Harper (“Pass It Around”) and even some songwriting assistance from Grant Lee Phillips on the excellent “Mansions on the Sand,” a perfect soundtrack to the summer evening sky that recalls the strummed folk of Wilco’s “Red-Eyed and Blue.”
“Take your time, don’t live so fast,” Frankenreiter sings more as a recommendation than an order during “Sing A Song.” This line has been delivered on countless records, and it’s a total cliché, but at the end of the day, Frankenreiter has a point and he certainly seems to be man that lives according to his word. Frankenreiter will never be taken as seriously as Bon Iver, but that’s not the point. For the forty-or-so minutes Pass It Around plays, the music will have taken you away from whatever it is you’re doing, remove all your cares and make you feel free, and if you’re lucky, make you sense a bit of it what it’s like to be Donavon Frankenreiter.
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