This debut solo effort from one of Buffalo's best guitar-based songwriters, Mike Criscione, is a masterful combination of straightforward rockers, heartfelt ballads, and well-developed and performed compositions that defy any strict genre-defined industry standard. This is what independent music is all about. The album opens with just another Regular Day, which showcases Criscione's composition talents integrating thoughtful lyrics with an uplifting theme that inspires and grabs the attention of the listener, drawing one in to the meat of the album. He moves next into an amusing country-diddy that demonstrates Mike's wit and breadth of musical character. The following three songs I have a particular bias reviewing due to the fact that I played the drums to these songs in two previous musical incarnations Mike also belonged to, the Buffalo-based groups "Riley" and "earful". From Me is a great rock song all about independent music that, given its soulful lyrical wailing, I believe deserves more of a backup than hand drums and synth bass. Still love the reference to Zappa though! I was left equally wanting with the acoustic version of Riding A Bus, a cutting song about modern terrorism that I still play for my sociology courses. It demands a backbeat that goes beyond the sixteen ounce Pepsi bottle included on this track. Don't get me wrong - these are great songs, but I felt they deserved a larger treatment with fuller backing support. Stare at the Sea is an all-together different upbeat jazz riff that takes the listener nicely into the end of the album. Of the four songs that round out the album, I was most impressed with track 7, Dragonfly, which offers up lyrics about the nature of self and creativity reminiscent of Willy Porter's song "Sowelu," a guitar line that reminds one of Michael Hedges (not bad musical company to hold), the best vocal effort on the disc, and orchestral moments that groove nicely with the clean guitar lines. The song is inspiring and eminently listenable. Overall, this is a clear triumph for Mike and for Buffalo's music scene. Many of these songs go back at least ten years and it is tremendously gratifying to hear them, as well as the newer arrangements, on a well-produced disc that can be heard over and over again with pleasure. For those of you looking for something new, don't hesitate to grab this one quickly before the batch sells out! Thanks Mike for keeping us going! - Drummis, www.drummis.com

What a great album for anyone who can appreciate both great musicianship as well as great lyrics! Buy it, give it a listen and find out for yourself...Mike Criscione knows his stuff. It is nice to finally listen to an albumn where each song is not a tired retread of the song before it...there are songs on here for any mood and any for anyone who pigeon holes themsleves to a specific genre (or two). If you like any of the popular aletrnative acoustic artists then give this a try!