Cahill

The first listen to this long awaited new album didn’t yield the “WOW!!!” that I was expecting. I tried to figure out why I didn’t immediately love it and then it dawned on me. The guys that I’ve seen play while I happily sit on a bench in Faneuil Hall or in a college lounge are now recording artists with a sound that holds such maturity and depth that I just wasn’t used to.
Once I listened with a different ear I was able to enjoy the pure sounds and melodies that I have loved to listen to for so long. The sounds that make you say “Why aren’t these guys huge?”
You can still hear their acoustic roots but rather than being overshadowed by other instruments it just enhances their beautiful songwriting and the emotions that are felt in each and every song.
You feel the playfulness in “Grace” and can hear the love that Bob has for his niece who inspired the song.
Then “Tired Man” comes on and the addition of the incredible female vocals of Liz Vaughn brings this album to a whole other level of listening enjoyment. I have to say this may be one of my favorite songs ever.
This album is an amazing accomplishment for these guys and you can feel the heart and soul that went into making it. BRAVO!! - Julia Bambara

Cahill’s fourth studio album,The Way It Should Be, will not be officially released until March 26, but I had the privilege of receiving an exclusive pre-release.

I have been a fan of this duo since I heard “Easily,” a single from Cahill’s first studio release, 2005's Blend. They immediately caught my attention when I heard them performing in Faneuil Hall Marketplace on Labor Day weekend eight years ago.

Since moving to Boston for college, I’ve had the opportunity to get to know Bob and Scott, two of the nicest men I have ever met. I am so proud of them for how far they have come in their musicianship, especially with this newest released that was self-produced, recorded, and engineered. - Taryn Balchunas

Cahill’s Fourth studio album, The Way It Should Be, will be officially released for all ears on March 26th. However, I was offered an opportunity for an exclusive pre-release that I was not going to pass up.
Cahill is an acoustic rock duo out of Boston consisting of Scott O’Brien and Robert Antonelli.

I first heard about Cahill 3 years ago during my freshman year at Bryant University. I wasn’t able to go to the show they were playing on campus, but I heard about them through one of my friends. He shared a few of their songs from their album, At the Seams, and right away I fell in love with Honesty.

The Way It Should Be is a nice follow up to their latest album Where We Go From Here. This latest release is solely produced and recorded, showing off their natural singing and songwriting abilities. - Stephanie Piech

Cahill has totally nailed it again! “The Way it Should Be” by Cahill is exactly that, the way it should be - amazing music! I've listened to the CD a number of times and I'm already singing along to the well written songs. The new CD seems to bring new instruments in some of their songs giving them a little extra something! "Grace" and "The Best the Truth can Offer You" are so far the favorites and I'm digging the violin! Both Bob and Scott's voices are smooth and engaging just pulling you in to listen more - it's definitely the perfect CD for when you're stressed at work and need to relax a bit. - DJ Farren

My first exposure to Cahill came when I heard their song “New Eyes” on Pandora during the summer of 2011. I fell in love with the song, looked up more Cahill music, and purchased all of the band’s albums. Cahill’s newest release, The Way It Should Be, is their best to date. With a beautiful blend of acoustic pop rock and terrific vocals, the duo continues to grow as artists with this record.

The more I listen to the album, the better it gets. It is far from monotonous, changing tempo, instrumentation and lyrical content from song to song. The Way It Should Be is filled with the type of deep songs that you could easily see playing to the soundtrack of your life. If you’re a fan of artists like Matt Nathanson, The Maine, or A Rocket to the Moon, this record will be right up your alley. It’s definitely worth a listen. - Matt Eichinger

Past the acrobatic dancers huddled around a boom box, past the fried dough stands and souvenir shops, past that guy dressed like Ben Franklin -- tucked in the back of Faneuil Hall stands Cahill.

For the past two years from May to October, Massachusetts natives Bob Antonelli and Scott O'Brien, of Cahill, have been playing catchy ditties at the popular tourist location.

"You meet people from all over the world," Antonelli said. "Like just tonight we had somebody from Australia and… was that guy from Hungary?" O'Brien nodded. "Our music goes everywhere, and we just get in touch with so many people. Tourists are very generous, and you never know who you'll meet in Faneuil Hall."

A few weeks ago, it happened to be James Taylor.

"We were sitting right here and some guy walked up and asked if we had a card, so I gave him one," Antonelli said. "Then I looked at him and said, 'Are you…' and he looked back and, yeah, it was. He was listening to us and he likes our music!"

He's not the only one. At each performance, the band meets dozens of visitors, some from the area, others from across the country and around the world. Teens walk up to the duo between songs to chat. Couples linger and enjoy the low-key ballads. Gray-haired passersby stop and bob their heads to more upbeat tunes.

"You can definitely see the difference playing here makes," Antonelli said. "Before, we'd get an email maybe once every one or two months or so… and now it's pretty much every day, somebody is writing to us saying 'I heard you in Faneuil Hall, I loved your music… How can I get a CD? Is Scott single? Can I sleep with you?'… You know, the normal stuff."

Collaboration between the two is more than twenty years in the making; they grew up as next-door neighbors and best friends.

"Scott and I always had a connection of using our imaginations, whether it was playing guns out in the woods or making up dance moves to music," Antonelli said.

After O'Brien learned to play guitar in high school, the two booked gigs at coffeehouses, playing popular covers.

"We are incomparable, a genre all our own," Antonelli joked about Cahill's sound, but said if he had to pick he'd describe it as a combination of Guster, Third Eye Blind and Dave Matthews. Though sometimes ashamed to admit it, Cahill was once a Dave Matthews cover band. You'll still hear them playing "#41" once in a while, but the duo now write their own songs, creating seamless harmonies.

They released their first CD, Blend, in 2005, but still struggled to make a name for themselves. O'Brien, a graduate of Bentley College, continued to work in computer information systems, while Antonelli, with an MFA in theater from Brandeis, acted in local plays and volunteered with a children's theater program.

"Back then, nobody knew who we were," O'Brien said. "We didn't play any shows. We just had an album. So we were spewing out money and trying to track stuff, but we didn't know what we were doing. It was like, what the hell do we do with this now?"

Eventually, the pair built a fan base playing at colleges and popular venues around New England. Now that they've quit their day jobs and polished their performances, the two were excited to debut their new CD, At the Seams, at the Paradise Lounge on Friday night.

"These songs have been road tested," Antonelli said. The group performed many of them throughout the summer, gauging reactions from fans. "This time around, we knew everything, knew exactly how we wanted it to sound, so everything was much more polished."

Three songs are brand new, he said, but even the tried and true have rarely been played with Cahill's full band, which includes Steve Belleville on bass, Dennis Carroll on keys, and G. Maxwell Zemanovic (aka Max) on drums. Todd Richard and College of Arts and Sciences junior Paul Laskorski add some percussion and strings on a few tracks.

"Our biggest goal? World domination," Antonelli said. "No…but we'd like to get the CD out to as many people as possible, so it lands in the hands of someone who can take us to the next step, playing around the country or getting our song on the radio or on TV. Our goal is to take this to a higher level than just the Boston area."

Are you listening, James?

~ Allison Moore

- The Daily Free Press

Pop rock band Cahill's At the Seams begins with "Genuine." A jaunty Moog line comprises the main melodic hook - simple, but catchy. The chorus resolves nicely, albeit a little predictably. It's the pre-chorus, though, that makes the song memorable, with clean, layered guitars and open hi-hat beats. The whole thing sounds a lot like '90s popsters Nine Days or Toad the Wet Sprocket. A solid choice for an opener, the song is generally more upbeat than the nine songs that follow.

Besides "Genuine," there are three songs that need to be heard on Seams: "Out of State," "Stare," and the terrifically spacey closer, "Until Then." While the record is consistently strong throughout, an EP of these four songs would have been really convincing. "Out of State" is an acoustic-based, radio-friendly pop song. With inspirational lyrics and traditional emo changes and harmonies, the song will certainly find an audience. "Stare" is the longest cut on the record, but by far the most chill, along the lines of acoustic balladeers like Jack Johnson. Sparkling guitar arpeggios puncture the sonic fabric of the strong, hooky chorus. The song features a highly emotive guitar solo, smoothly EQ'd organ, and perhaps the most heartfelt lyrics on the record. While the song could be trimmed down a bit in length, it is the record's central pop thesis.

While At the Seams doesn't break any new stylistic ground, it does present 10 well-written pop songs and is perfect for scoring that rainy Sunday afternoon at the local coffee shop. (Self-released)

-Hugh McIntyre
- Northeast Performer Magazine