Whisperer - Am I the Meadow or the Mountain LP

To say that Sam Fuller-Smith is my favorite male vocalist working today might sound like an exaggeration, but it isn’t. If a good vocalist is someone who recognizes their gifts and limitations and sorts out how best to work within those boundaries then Sam is in the enviable position of possessing not only an effortless tenor but a craftsman’s command of that tool. None of the pitfalls of the typical modern male vocalist, the over-annunciation, the pinched whine, the emotionally empty affectation, are to be found here. Instead, there’s only a pure reed of a voice and its methodically constructed accompaniment. Fuller-Smith achieves a delicate balancing act in that his songs are impressionistic yet direct, even deceptively so. They don’t tell stories nor are they about particular situations, but are the stuff of his experiences and his attempts to work through the way he encounters them. They are forward-looking and modern despite being rooted in the past. To me, that makes them timeless. -Ryan Norris/Coupler Chicago 2018