Artist: Sean Doherty Title: Many Things Label: Self-Issued Web: redcabbage music.com
By Michael Macey.

On Many Things, Sean Doherty gives us six songs that deal with his personal issues of disappointment, frustration and love. Doherty is a singer-songwriter-guitarist who plays acoustic based rock and pop. Backed by a full band that really fleshes out his material, the overall results of Many Things are good, if not at times cryptic. An example is the opening track, Jimmy Lovell. He sings "Do you think I could be just like Jack Swigert, flipping a switch at the wrong time? Or maybe it's all about parachutes and Elvis Presley." Huh? Even after an explanation of what the song is about, I'm still not sure about those lines. That aside, in the song Doherty equates the almost moonwalk of Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell to his uncompleted stint at the United States Naval Academy. He wrote the song in frustration after being kicked out of the Academy and uses the Armstrong connection for, as he recounts on soundclick.com/Sean Doherty "… of coming so close to something, then not making it, kind of like Jim Lovell on Apollo 13. He was so close to walking on the moon and then got gypped by a faulty wire. I can relate to Jim Lovell". It's a song of shattered dreams and expectations, as well as dealing with the little cruelties in life that you have no control over. Its space references may be a little obscure to some, but I read it as, you can't always get what you want, so make the best of what you have. Dream World is... "About a girl who went to my school. She was an amazing girl, but she made stupid choices, and the song is about how we became distant from each other, due to her drug use." It reminded me a little of R.E.M. Its melancholy pop sound is reminiscent of some of the current work of that band. On the heavier front there's the studio version of Don't Ask Why, a grungy sounding tune that gets its momentum from drummer Noel White. The heavy-handed style that he employs on this track perfectly complements the droning guitar and sullen quality of Doherty's vocals. The studio version of Blue is a nice piece of pop. It has a breezy style and a melodic hook in the chorus that makes it one of the more memorable cuts on the album. There are actually eight cuts on the disc; two are repeated as live tracks. Blue and Don't Ask Why were recorded from a radio broadcast and present different takes on those songs.
Produced by Noel White, the studio recordings have a warm tone that works well with both the acoustic-based material and the harder songs. There's a spatial quality to the recording that gives it a nice full sound. The radio material sounds compressed, but considering the source, it's not bad.
I thoroughly enjoyed Many Things from Sean Doherty. Its mostly upbeat sound is an easy listen. Influenced by people like Guster, Matt Nathanson, Dave Mathews and Ryan Adams, he draws from those artists, rather than imitating them. Doherty offers a glimpse of those roots, while maintaining his own identity. It's a combination that works well.