Kyle Knapp’s ‘Burr Oak Acres’ is what an acoustic album should be, personal lyrics draped on soothing melodies all held up by talented guitar stylings
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Have you ever sat down on a porch swing in the middle of country and done nothing but enjoy the surroundings? If you have, playing Burr Oak Acres on your portable CD player would have completed that serene setting. Kyle employs an acoustic folk flavor that may remind you slightly of Pure Prarie Leauge or even a bit of John Denver. Yet there is a big difference as Kyle's music has more substance. He sings from his heart for the Lord and only longs to have this world be that wonderful place we can enjoy from that porch swing...

...To write lyrics that fit the musical puzzle is not an easy thing to accomplish. There is individual meaning which seems tailored to the each and every listener. Everyone will come away from this album with some hidden part of themselves stirred within and that is all any one person with a guitar in hand can ask for.

Burr Oak Acres is a brilliant project and well thought out from the booklet through the music itself. If you are a laid back acoustic music fan, then Burr Oak Acres is meant for you. It provides us with many mixed emotions: love, hope, longing, faith and joy, all in just 10 songs. That's more than anyone can ever expect!

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Thank goodness the age of the singer / songwriter / guitar strummer has never had the sun set upon it. I'd be at a loss if I had never listened to John Prine, Steve Goodman, Mark Heard, James Taylor, Woody Guthrie, Gordon Bok, Cisco Houston and countless others.

Knapp has a knack for the catchy tune, refined by his more than adequate voice. The songs scatter images and emotions along your synapses, causing you to feel and experience the stories he presents. "Lincoln Boulevard" is an nostalgic looking to the past "when the park was green / the streets were clean and girls were girls and the men were men." And while all the memories are simply that, the sentiment is one of fondness for the past mixed with the reality of "And if I could you know I would, but I can't go back again to Lincoln Boulevard!" Something we can relate to at any age. The title cut also features the theme of nostalgia - a yearning for the past that is only a memory. Two fine songs.

Knapp steps into the realm of humor with "Just One of The Boys," a ditty about male chauvinism in the face of a woman wanting to do a job that has always been a man's world - auto mechanic. The singer is impressed, encourages her and ultimately goes to work for her. Says a lot about not prejudging a person.

I don't know how Knapp manages to hit home so much, but "We Walk Together," about a lonely man who lived within himself, rips right into the depths of the heart with the words "Me and Jesus, we walk together / I'm hand in hand with the Father of us all."

In retrospect and numerous listenings, the entire disc pleases to no end. I have yet to get tired of any of the songs. The more I listen, the more Knapp sounds likes James Taylor. Maybe that why this is so fine
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