Robert Gomez

When Gomez combines that beautiful instrumentation with his penchant for impressionistic lyrics, he comes up with a sonic stew that's simultaneously ethereal and gut-wrenchingly down-to-earth - Blurt

...but an album like Gomez’s, with all of its crannies and the delicate flourishes, requires patience true believers. It’s a rewarding trip that finds you sinking your teeth into the muffled and hushed lyrics that lay into you like a summer wind - Daytrotter.com

He is a miniaturist constructing symphonies on the head of a pin. - Americana UK

Pine Sticks and Phosphorus continues Gomez’s streak of intelligent, handsomely mounted pop that can break your heart or bring a smile to your face. - Fort Worth Star Telegram

If you were to take the lush vocals found in bands like Starflyer 59 and combine them with the beautiful melancholy of fellow Texans Midlake, you might get something close to resembling Robert Gomez. Backed by a keyboardist and French horn player, Gomez, on guitar, played selections from his last two stellar albums, 2007’s Brand New Towns and his most recent, 2009’s Pine Sticks and Phosphorous. It’s a difficult task, but Gomez manages to construct sad pop songs that tend to linger inside your brain long after the song has finished without the interference of drums and bass. Though he does use drums on some of his studio recordings, the loss of them live made it seem more personal rather then something was missing.
Gomez appeared rather thin and tall on stage and yet his demeanor was a very understated and modest one. He filled the room with alternating dreamy instrumentals and then more structured pop songs with lyrics. His voice is never insistent or even passionate but has a gentle quality that suggests a man trying to find his way in the darkness of the world. When he’s not singing, the instrumentals he creates are heartfelt, similar to what Jon Brion does for soundtracks. You can’t help but experience a sense of wonder listening to them as if they are part of a soundtrack to your life and your life has become a strange sort of cinema.

Though he’s an adept guitar player, with some intricate finger picking now and then, his best skill lies within the overall creation of these delicate laments. They are sad dreams for when you’re awake. Gomez began his forty-five minute set with “October 3rd Post”, a glorious symphony that seems in essence to instrumentally describe the wonder of fall and simultaneously the dread of the coming winter. That seemed to set a certain tone and worked as a wonderful companion for “Middle of Nowhere”. Other highlights of the set included “Hunting Song” and “A Paper Figurine”. - Pop Matters

or those not currently in the know, it might seem strange to hear that the soft-hearted anti-folk artist Robert Gomez was once a member a popular Texas based mambo band known as the Latin Pimps. Or that he once toured as a circus performer (of sorts). You won’t hear much direct influence from these experiences on his latest solo effort, Pine Sticks and Phosphorus. But there is an obvious “influenced by the earth” feel to the album. As well as it being a cut above your average singer/songwriter’s work.

The slight haunting of an organ acts as the jump off for Robert’s hollowed out vocals and simple guitar chords on the star track “Hunting Song”. The most noteworthy and probably most noticeable aspect of the track would have to be the smoothness it creates. The notes don’t seem complex, but they’re certainly not dull. Then there’s “Open Your Eyes/Burning Trees”, which sounds like a B Side to Elliot Smith’s “Fond Farewell To A Friend”. A continuation of something truly artistic and genuinely secure in stature.

Gomez’s career as a musician has had it’s share of high roads and low valleys. But he is now another testament of what can occur when your talent is endless and your ambition is phenomenal. It’s almost impossible to have one and not the other if you wish to make music your life. And Pine Sticks and Phosphorus is great proof that this cat has both; he’s got a head start down the path to find his niche in such an expansive and sometimes unforgiving medium.-Ron Trembath - www.fensepost.com