NYC Artists on the Rise: Delicate Steve’s residency at Union Pool

The instrumental music played by Steve Marion, aka Delicate Steve, is strange and wonderful. His first full length album “Wondervisions” – released after a 10 year career of recording, producing and playing with other bands – features sonic delights only a "wise" musician/producer could conjure up. On the song “Butterfly”, a rapid beatbox percussion sets the table for his dobro-like slide guitar styling, which are then filled out with emotive chord progressions. Gentle interludes on traditional sounding guitars (reminiscent of, say, Jimmy Page’s quieter moments) bridge it all to a joyous conclusion full of synthetic strings and percussions. “Attitude/Gratitude” blends flowing arpeggio keyboard lines with additional rich acoustic guitar. “The Ballad of Speck and Pebble” incorporates a funky horse-hop-like bass guitar and shaker percussion to bright guitar phrasing. Open guitar chords are strummed with synth pads extending each note, creating warm emotional textures. It’s clearly well crafted studio work, yet the primary guitar playing (especially the single note licks and riffing on top) sound loose and jammy. The perfect blend. Delicate Steve will be playing a September residency at Union Pool – do not miss. – Dave Cromwell