Curios

From Assorted Reviews of Previous work by Andrew Hyra The quotes below are excerpts of a 1994 review of the first Billy Pilgrim album in Rolling Stone which received a 4 star rating; Billy Pilgrim are actually Andrew Hyra and Kristian Bush, graduates of Atlanta's progressive folk-rock scene, and while they're far from revolutionary, they've latched onto a sensibility that cuts slap through the bone en route to the heart. Billy Pilgrim are smart, catchy and sometimes unnervingly intense. Hanging on to vowels and spitting out consonants, Hyra belts with so much contained conviction that you want to scoop him up and tote him out of there. Rarely do they wallow in their discontent, and they even have fun on songs like the wonderfully addictive ode to love in super flux, 'Hula Hoop. And these quotes are from a 1999 review of Hyra's first solo album Spill, also available at CDBaby, in Atlanta's Creative Loafing SPILL suggests what might happen if Bono quit U2 to join the Traveling Wilburys SPILL's title track compares the end of a romance to an oil spill, with Hyra delivering a strong, unmistakably Bono-like vocal performance: and his sweeping rockers 'I Believe in Heaven' and Here I am' are ablaze with Joshua Tree sonic grandeur. Awash in Pettyish guitar jangle and Al Kooper-style organ fills, 'House of Cards' finds Hyra singing with George Harrison sharpness; he repeats the trick in 'For the People' with Beatlesque harmonies... All's well during the disc-closing 'Born Again,' on which Hyra asserts he's 'feeling brand new'. Refreshed and sincere, he also sounds like he's having a good time. Listening to SPILL, you'll have what he's having.