Product Description This Portland-based songwriter's music bridges the gap between folk, country, blues and rock. Armed with a guitar, harmonica, sparse percussion and a tin pan alley-esque piano. Ward spins timeless classics that seem to flow effortlessly. Simple yet eloquent tales alive with metaphor and imagery, told in a raspy, sepia-toned croon. He's been compared to Tom Waits, Granddaddy, Sparklehorse and Howe Gelb. .com M. Ward has been championed by Howe Gelb, who released Ward's 2000 debut disc Duet for Guitars #2 on his Ow Om label, and Conor Oberst, who brought Ward on the road with Bright Eyes. In 2001, Ward earned some small measure of acclaim for his sophomore effort, End of Amnesia, and if the Portland, Oregon-based songwriter keeps making records as inventive and thoroughly rewarding as this third album, he won't be unknown long. Full of snappy, loping pop tunes interwoven with mellow instrumental passages, Transfiguration of Vincent shows Ward to be a terrific folk and blues guitarist, a perceptive, witty storyteller, and--in tossing piano, percussion, harmonica, and various other instruments into mixes that never feel the least bit cluttered--an imaginative arranger. He's also an expressive vocalist, whether in a winsome upper register that recalls Ben Harper or his sandy-throated midrange. There's not a weak moment on this dark-horse gem of a disc. --Anders Smith Lindall
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