Tamborine Magazine
By Jay Kana February 1, 2008
Being a one man show isn’t the easiest job to have; everything starts and stops with you. There is no reason to say: “the drummer wasn’t consistent”, “the guitar player made so many mistakes and it totally threw me off” or “the bass player wasn’t locked in to the groove of the song”. In a band there isn’t one single person that the entire performance relies on. Enter Sean Pinchin. Armed with only an acoustic guitar, slide, and harmonica, Sean’s hauntingly beautiful vocal melodies resonate with his eloquent slide guitar playing. The “less is more” approach has been successful and coupled with songs written from life experiences makes for a stellar debut album. Having been a guitar teacher, working in various music stores as well as bands, it’s no surprise that he’s one of the most talented and hardest working musicians in the GTA.
Performing 150 to 250 shows per year for the past 3 years is a clear indication of his work ethic. Sean always knew that he had musical talent, but it wasn’t until he was introduced to a lap steel guitar that he realized performing would be the perfect avenue to channel his talent through. Musicians who have influenced Sean’s attractive and simple style include: Kelly Joe Phelps, Ben Harper, Tom Waits and Jimi Hendrix. Sean’s debut album “Folklore” is packed with soulful songs all written from personal experiences. The 16 track disc thankfully lacks “filler” tracks. I almost expect to hear the few mediocre songs put at the end of the CD; again, being a one man show Sean has definitely selected the proper combination of songs to be grouped together. With tracks including “Robin’s Nest”, “God Moves On The Water” and “True Love Story” Sean bares his soul for the listener. He’s not out to reinvent music, the way slide guitar is played, or even to revolutionize songwriting. Instead what you get from Sean is a very straight forward “This is me, these are my songs” attitude, which is what really drew me to this album and artist. While listening to the CD it was as if he was a storyteller telling me about factual events in his life with soothing & emotional music in the background. I’d seen Sean perform a few years ago at the Duke of Marlborough (which seats 50 at most), also, I’d seen him every time I went to Long & McQuade in Mississauga. When I was deciding on whom to write about for this month’s issue his name was at the top of the list. His solo performance still stands out as one of the best of an unsigned artist that I’ve ever seen. He’s an easy going musician who supports other local musicians and most importantly, Sean’s humbling personality made interviewing him effortless. I’d planned on a quick 20 minute interview but when all was said and done, we’d had a full breakfast and chatted for over an hour. I hate to use the cliché term “time just seemed to fly by” but it really did. He’s a focused individual who knows what he wants and how to get it. He also intelligently realizes that things won’t happen overnight and that anything worth having is worth working for.
Going forward, he’s going to be more selective of how often he performs. He feels as if he’s over saturated himself with the GTA and I agree with him. Its one thing as a new artist to want to play as much as possible, spread the word, gain a fan base and have your music available to as many people as possible, but it is an entirely different thing to be known as the guy “who I’ve seen about 10 times over the last year in random bars coincidentally.” - which is something Sean doesn’t want to happen. As a musician myself I completely understand his mentality; it’s great to gig all the time and log all sorts of hours on stage, but when you’re working a 40 hour work week and playing 3-4 nights a week there’s very little time remaining to work on new material. A musician is only as good as your last song or album. Evolving as a musician is important; you have to continue to write songs and take the next step. Although “Folklore” was recently released, Sean is already working on new material for his highly anticipated sophomore album. For upcoming performances and sound clips visit: www.myspace.com/seanpinchin. As an added bonus, YouTube has several videos of Sean performing.
