Devall Music

We never hear music like this anymore...WE LOVE IT! - 94.1 WZNE Radio

"Old Grey Suit" by Devall Music is one of the Top Five most requested songs of 2007 and the entire (transit) album is one of my favorites. - WGAD Internet radio

This album's take on both acoustic and alternative styles is both innovative and accessible. From start to end it is stand out amazing Alt-country and Americana with sharp guitar and harmonica play. Give this guy a listen! - FREETIME Magazine

...My first impression of Aaron’s music was much different than the music I heard tonight. What is on his MySpace.com page is much more “country-ish” than he played. Tonight, the music was more accessibly folk-styled. The first piece was a song called “Labor Day,” which is a thoughtful, whimsical portrait of fall in Upstate NY. It was an appropriate choice, since while chatting with him, , Aaron and I agreed that things just aren’t the same with out or Rochester four seasons...
- www.dragonflyeye.net

Devall Music: It’s ‘Finger Lakes roots music'-Those plugged into the Rochester area live-music scene in the late 1990s and early 2000s might remember a band named Pompous Pilate, a full-force rock band that grew out of the group Beachbob, gigged around the region, released two CDs and earned positive critical attention. Then again, they might not. “Pompous Pilate put out what I consider to be two amazing albums,” said singer/guitarist Aaron DeRuyter of Farmington. “I never thought for one minute that I was worthy of playing in Pompous Pilate. But we gigged in the Finger Lakes for ten years before we could even pack Milestones. It was ridiculous.” These days, DeRuyter has a new project, the Americana/roots band Devall Music. The quieter, more reflective, country-tinged acoustic songs on their debut disc “Transit” represent a definite turn from the harder and denser arrangements of Pompous Pilate, though the band’s still known to rock out when they play live — just while playing things like banjo and mandolin. He’s still a bit miffed at what he and other musicians see as Rochester’s preference for cover bands over original acts, though he acknowledges that he generally stays a few years ahead of, or behind, the trends. “In five years when Americana gets popular, maybe I’ll be playing Celtic rock,” he laughed wryly. “To be quite honest with you, I had a lot of changes in about 2004,” DeRuyter said. “I just decided it was time to mellow out, stop running around the city like a psychopath and start a family and such. I’m going to say my daughter started me liking acoustic music. I think there’s a lot more to be said.” That’s where he is now, anyway. “I could very well wake up tomorrow and feel, ‘hey, rock and roll!” So he left Pompous Pilate behind and started playing tiny venues and open mikes on his own around 2004. A couple of his old bandmates backed him for a while, then some members of likeminded rock/Americana band The Spirit of Ontario started playing with him, including that band’s leader John Sacheli, who DeRuyter thinks is one of the best and most under-appreciated guitarists around these parts. The band’s current lineup is DeRuyter, Sacheli, Joe Myers (drums), Justin DeWolf (bass), Scott Janas (banjo) and Ryan Kinney (mandolin) — though plenty of others have come in and out and pitched in at sets. Taking the vocals is DeRuyter, with a voice often reminiscent of that other sometimes-folkie, sometimes-shredder, Neil Young. (DeRuyter was hearing those comparisons before he’d even heard of Young, though he is a big fan.) The band’s songs, all written by DeRuyter — with the occasional cover like Young’s “Cortez the Killer” — have a melancholy, down-tempo feel to them. They’re largely about relationships and connections in various stages of emerging and declining (plus a wry reflection on the lifestyles of the rich and famous, “Gliteratti”), with some familiar local things and places (the South Wedge, Finger Lakes wine, an ocean-like lake that’s presumably Ontario) making evocative appearances. (A frequent refrain on the disc: “Say goodbye to the city/Say goodbye to those South Wedge nights.”) That’s not accidental: DeRuyter loves this region. He grew up in Phelps and gradated from Midlakes, and the history of his hometown — the whole area, in fact — fascinates him. “I draw inspiration from the Finger Lakes, truthfully — I’ve kind of dubbed Devall Music ‘Finger Lakes roots music,’” he said. “I just love it — we have four seasons, we have the greatest wine in the world, we have the greatest hiking — the Finger Lakes are a wonderful place. You don’t know really how important it is; you get older and you grasp it.” And the melancholy tones and themes — they’re taken from real life, He says he’s never been particularly happy, until fairly recently as he’s taken a more philosophic approach to life. “The truth of the matter is, after you come to terms with whatever in your life and accept it for what it is — I’m filled with a sense of carpe diem. I want to enjoy whatever I can. “... My religion is my daughter and my music,” he said. “To me that’s what keeps me going every day.” - Daily Messenger Newspapers

Devall Music plays of Neo-Folk and Americana twisted with the power of rock and Roll with a simply amazing live show! - Rochester City Weekly