David Munyon

From "The Ticket", the Daily Mirror, Friday the 22nd of September, 2006

DAVID MUNYON - Song For Danko 5/5

He may operate under the mainstream music biz radar but Munyon is one of the great soulful troubadours of modern America. Recorded at Abbey Road, birthplace of The Beatles’ magic that inspired him as a youth, this is worthy of their inspiration. A shimmering husky voice sings songs, such as the title track dedicated to The Band’s Rick Danko, that glow with mystical insights, his hypnotic acoustic guitar the only accompaniment. Such precious music should not go unnoticed. Check him out at www.davidmunyon.com - the Daily Mirror

February 2008

David Munyon, "Some Songs for Mary".


After what have become, in the meantime, the legendary best sellers ‘Code Name Jumper’ and ‘Acrylic Teepees’, from 1990 and 1996 respectively, the song-writing guru David Munyon has brought out a completely new CD recorded with a band. The CD is called ‘Some Songs for Mary’. On the cover we see the print of a torn photo in which Munyon at age seventeen is standing with his friends from those days Bud Wyatt and Charlie Sykes. The photo was taken in 1971 in front of his parents’ gas station in Brandon, Florida. Munyon no longer knows how the photo got torn, but he was able to relate how that old 1957 Chevy Nomad managed to take the trio to Hollywood. Yes, even Munyon had plans back in those days to become a film star!

If I’ve kept properly up to date, ‘Some Songs for Mary’ is Munyon’s fourteenth release. David Munyon is what you’d call a full-blooded singer-songwriter, who in my opinion never ever achieved the success he justly deserved. From his somewhat inscrutable character and mysterious behaviour we might expect his work to be somewhat suffocating, but don’t pre-judge, simply judge him on his musical qualities. This always and without fail warm and friendly troubadour recognises Townes van Zandt, Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan and John Prine as his idols, whilst in no way being inferior to them himself. Indeed I’ve established that of late a whole new young generation of singer-songwriters who recently discovered the songs of this Vietnam war-veteran have been considerably inspired by the poetic tone of his lyrics and songs. A relatively small group of Europeans, who have got to know him somewhat better, idolize him. After years in Midland City, Alabama, in miserable conditions, he was embraced, adored and received by this group. Munyon now lives in Heidelberg, Germany, and so, every now and then, he makes the ferry crossing to his beloved London. That’s indeed exactly what he did last summer. There, to get back to where we started, he recorded the thirteen songs on the new CD ‘Some Songs for Mary’.

Producer Roger Morrish ensured that Munyon’s songs were surrounded by substantial sound from the band. Mary’s band doesn’t consist of musicians plucked from nowhere. Amongst others, we get to hear the by now 62 year old Pedal steel guitarist BJ Cole. This veteran stood alongside Elton John, Scott Walker, T.Rex and Nazareth, to name but a few, in the early days,. Graham Right on Fretless bass and Nigel Appleton on drums and percussion ensure a disciplined and watchful rhythm section. Multi-instrumentalist and co-producer, engineer and mixer Mick Hutchings wholly deserves acclaim for his accomplishments. With his enormous musical imagination he gets David Munyon to sound like never before.

You feel it at once when ‘Some Songs for Mary’ kicks off with a magnificent saxophone intro, sprung from a certain Stewart Curtis, in Let’s Dance The Night Away. Again later Munyon shows his true colours in Groovin’ with the Dalai Lama. The Appleton drums sound like Led Zepperlin’s When The Levee Breaks and Dave Barnes’ Dobro rivals Al Perkins. Then suddenly the track Rich and Beautiful makes its appearance. He wrote and sings this wonderfully melodic song with Dagmar Wirtz. A little later Munyon, once again, goes through a similar sort of duet in the moving Angels All Around Us. Perhaps strange to say, but the melancholy and very impressive band version of Rolling Up The Windows In The Rain has real Hit potential. Munyon makes sincere reference to current issues in Africa in Soul of Africa. This song is dedicated to all the children who are the victims of what is happening. The swinging waltz Walking In The Storm makes perhaps the most powerful impression on me, with its psychedelic textual content. With the rock number Grace, written and sung once again with Dagmar Wirtz, David Munyon brings a splendid and brilliant adventure to a close. Of this sort of musical trail-blazer there are generally far too few. ‘Some Songs For Mary’ is, with both feet on the ground, as far as I’m concerned, the first top record of 2008. (Jan Janssen)




- Jan Jannsen, Real Roots Cafe