Title: A Moment With You
Artist: Dean Cottrill

COTTRILL’S NEW CD SHOWCASES SONGS, VOICE AND GUITAR
It’s been a long time coming, but Dean Cottrill’s new CD is finally at
hand, a rambling document of a checkered career as bluesman, sideman,
singer, songwriter, and of course guitarist. He dabbles in jazz – in part
the legacy of his student years – and seldom strays from standard tuning,
something of an anomaly considering his reputation as a slide player. But
the challenges of expressing a broad catalogue of titles on six strings
being what they are, Dean resolved the need for some common thread or
anchor in part by adhering to standard tuning.

Take for example the solo performance of Beiderbecke’sIn A Mist, something
of a testament to a relentless search for a definitive style: It has been
streamlined, modified and modernized to accomodate the exacting standards
of an artist in pursuit of perfection. But this is only one facet of
Cottrill’s restless temperament.

For the most part, he has eeked out a subistance in the abstract
environment of cafes and nightclubs from coast to coast, first as sideman
bassist or guitarist in country bands and eventually as singer and
frontman. Necessity they say is the mother of invention, and in an effort
to break the cycle of bar-to-bar existence, Cottrill began putting his own
wry observations down on paper and in song.

Several of the titles here – from $2. Ears to Everybody Knows My Car –
date from the past decade. And for the benefit of those familiar with
Handful of Grooves – Cottrill’s first all-original effort – 2 titles,
Pussyfootin’ and Baby Your Feets Is Cold are included.

As for the rest, the strategy on the whole was to present some of the more
upbeat aspects of Cottrill’s work.
Where it leads to from here is anybody’s guess. One thing for sure, it
won’t be a disappointment.

WHAT IS DEAN COTTRILL’S SOUND?
It’s a slash of slide guitar in songs like Hot Little Number, Baby Your
Feets is Cold or the ballad Real Thing. It’s the intricate fingerstyle
playing on In A Mist or his own Strathcona Drag. It’s also the lyrics of
wry character as in $2. Ears, and of humour, as in Wiener Water Soup or
Play ‘Stairway to Heaven’, of gospel sentiment in Trouble. All sung with a
voice of seasoned maturity that betrays a familiarity with club dates and
bars – a hint of country, dash of rock & roll, an intimacy with the
standard. It’s the sound of captivating solo performance and rollicking
band rhythms; of variety underscored by soulful finesse.