Performing Songwriter

Performing Songwriter
 Mare Wakefield
May, 2007

Carefree country meets tortured soul on Derek Lee Bronston's Empty River. "What Is Wrong" kicks things off with Bronston bemoaning his actions: "What is wrong with me, I treat you like I do / What is wrong with me, I leave you feeling so blue." A slow drumbeat, mournful slide guitar and harmonica complete the desolate picture.
The consolatory "That's Alright" picks up the mood, and Bronston bares all to his soulmate on "Woman Like You." "We walk alone, and I need you / We make one from two," Bronston growls and moans like a male Lucinda Williams. There's even a starkly beautiful cover of Townes Van Zandt's "No Place to Fall" which fits the mood of the record perfectly. Got an empty space on your CD shelf? Let Empty River fill it.

Ctrl Alt Country

Ctrl Alt Country
What a debut Derek Lee Bronston has with this calling card. What most new comers couldn't dream of. What the Detroit born singer-songwriter put together on "Empty River" is an immediate soulful bursting of lyrics, which manifests his preference for the great contemporaries of this genre of music like Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Gram Parsons or more recently a Ryan Adams.

More or less introspective songs, reminiscent of Americana and the alt.country style. The eye catching cover of Townes van Zandt "No Place to Fall", is that good. Simply recorded with one microphone in a hall. Is this is the best take on the CD, that can be argued? What really concerns us is that you pay attention to the enthralling "Waiting", "Woman Like You" distantly reminiscent of the Jayhawks ", the through your bones  " Rainy Days", the special love song "All I Need", the acoustic version of "That is Alright" or the wonderful opening with "What Is Wrong".

In these songs Bronston is at his best. We mean the arrival of a great
thunderstorm of talent. As a vocalist, songwriter and musician (guitars, dobro, electric bass, harmonica) he is a man we will have to take into account in the future.

Music Spectrum

Music Spectrum / July 07
Benjamin C. Squires
Derek Lee Bronston's Empty River might've passed by as simply another guitar-toting, singer/songwriter's CD recorded just to have something at the merch table after hotel lounge sets. It might've been that?if almost every one of Bronston's songs weren't so deeply resonant as to produce striking impressions.

"What is Wrong" is a bluesy, acoustic country song just kicking it on the porch with a weathered barhall piano rolled outside. Melissa Greener's background vocals are right out of Emmylou Harris land where harmony can make you fall in love. "That's Alright" is stripped back to closing time or maybe even later when the chairs are up on the table.

With its little hesitation step, "Woman Like You" has hints of the Silos. For "Waiting," Bronston taps into a mournful New Bluegrass like Thomas Denver Johnson with a stronger lyric delivery that comes at a faster cadence than the slide guitar would suggest.

"Rainy Days" is a countrified hard rock song of slamming intensity slowed down and cut back for a late night, the liquor's all gone, the party's all done, the energy's just about drained by the passion?that's still smoldering. Like Greg Brown, Bronston finds a bluesy country folk song in "Weighed Down" while letting some faint echoes of Classic Rock hang out on the edges. "All I Need" is an acoustic picker that finds Bob Dylan staring into the melancholy of U2's "All I Want is You" and "Van Diemen's Land."
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