Ben Ripani Music Co.

Ben Ripani Music Company – unsurprisingly – has a guy named Ben Ripani in it. With his name on the marquee, it would be easy to assume that he’s the only driving force behind the band. That the Music Company part is really just a description of the group of studio musicians that tour with him because he can only play three instruments at the same time – and not six. - Lost in Concert

There’s a twang, an emotion, a polarizing sense of attraction between you and Ben Ripani that is almost indescribable. It’s not quite blues. Or rock. Or folk. Rather, it pulls a piece from each of them and creates a patchwork musical canvas that has a little bit of Dylan, a smattering of Blues Traveler, a dash of Dave Matthews and some Wilco for good measure. Each and every member of the Ben Ripani Music Company plays with a passion and focus that I haven’t seen live in quite some time.

Every song is a collection of individual ephemeral moments weaved together into honest tales about life. The message on some songs exudes classic Americana, but in this case that isn’t a bad thing. They’re not just regurgitating the songs of years past, they’re re-imagining them. And they’re re-imagining them in epic fashion.

No one in the band remains still for more than a fleeting moment. The stool reserved for Chris, the keyboard player, appears to be there for show because most of the time he’s frenetically banging on his keys from an upright position. Patrick and Dave (percussion and bass, respectively) are more in tune with each other than some of the instruments that occupied the same stage earlier. Chris (different Chris) works his guitar with such ease that it seems as if the guitar is an extension of his body. And then there’s the proverbial face and name of the band – Ben Ripani.

Ripani himself – as the proverbial face and name of the band – is without compare in current Indie music. Every once in a while, you’ll catch Ripani with his eyes open, but it’s definitely the exception and not the rule. When you’re working instruments (lead vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica) like he is, the emotional high you get from watching is all the eye contact you really need. For their individual parts, they’re all amazing musicians. But this is definitely one of those situations where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
- Ben Dahl - Lost in Concert.com - Lost in Concert

San Diego Reader Review: Sept 27, 2007


As seen on page 105: Hometown CDs by Ollie

Down with Leo has combined rhythms from Manchester, vocals from Dave Matthews, and a Pixies/Elvis Costello sensibility. Songs on this self-titled EP range from hand-clapping piano pop to moody, progressive alt-rock.

Their tempo is slow without dragging. There really aren't any solos, only breaks in the vocals that act as cooling off periods. Down with Leo has perfected pace changes and sophisticated compositions to make every song interesting.

Lyrically, each track tells a story, and the narrative is revealed as the song builds. From the first song, "Glasses in Wintertime", we get the idea of a relationship gone awry: "Nothing ever seems to start like you promised me in all the books you had me read." The song's chorus adds to the theme: "Still I got nothing left to give, so I'll give it all. Bring roses if I fall. Bring roses if I fall."



- San Diego Reader Review

Following a stint in San Diego, Americana act Ben Ripani returned home to Chicago and released his 2008 solo debut Hope Street — an album rife with rich instrumentation and soulful vocals. Some songs here are stripped to only the acoustic guitar to showcase Ripani’s poetics, which certainly hold up. But the best moments capture both his production and songwriting prowess, like the head-bopping “Get A Hold Of Me.” Appearing: August 22nd at Yakzie’s in Chicago. (www.benripani.com)
– Max Herman - Illinois Entertainer

Hope Street starts out like a riff from Tom Waits' Bone Machine or Frank's Wild Years, dark and forboding, but soon gives way to Ben Ripani's Randy Newman-ish voice, style, and lyrics. Nonetheless, the unorthodox approach and presence of Tony Belledin's clarinet color the mood to sit between Newman's favored dusty days and Waits' back alleys. Don't Cry on Me pulls the singer-songwriter more firmly into the Newman mode but with a skiffley shuffle that Randy wouldn't adopt. Ripani then leans into a Ralph NcTell-ish atmosphere (think Streets of London) fleshed out by violinist Tim Marchiafava, so that a folk wont is evident, fattened up by an almost cinematic feel.

Just as Newman walked between categories, so does Ripani—now cabaretic, now folky, now soft rockish, then a bit Tin Pan Alleyesque. The correct pigeonhole for this is 'offbeat' but not radically so—rather: gently, carefully, empathetically. Several songs, like T, are just him and his acoustic guitar (tracked, in this case) in a cut that soothes but pulls at the borders of the heart, briefly mounting passionately in the refrains. Slowly, you're dragged beneath in his understated gems, fascinated, realizing just how compelling Ripani's music is, how subtly it works its way into odd angles and unruffled pleasures. The gent allows plenty of time for each cut to develop, Inside Outside being a particularly striking example, hurrying nothing.

A bit of John Sebastian can also be caught in Hope Street, from that time between the friendly acidhead's highest points in the Lovin' Spoonful (Darlin' Be Home Soon and that vibe) and his early solo work, as well as a few very faint Joe Jackson elements sidling in at the most sophisticated moments, that very brief period when Jackson mattered and knew how to write (Night and Day). But, really, like Newman was in his time, Rapani is no one's child and that's one of the many factors making his art and this disc impossible to ignore.

Track List:
Five Years from Now
Don't Cry on Me
Behind a Word
Get a Hold of Me
T
Inside Outside
Feeling of Home
A Place to Call my Own
Faithfully
Cold Weathered Man
Hope Street

All songs written by Ben Ripani.

Edited by: David N. Pyles
(dnpyles@acousticmusic.com)

Copyright 2009, Peterborough Folk Music Society.
This review may be reprinted with prior permission and attribution.




- Mark S. Tucker - FAME review