on a scale of 1 to 10, Maurice Tani is a 77

The reviews are in, and they are exceedingly effusive. Maurice Tani recently released two CDs simultaneously, one together with his marvelous 77 El Deora, and an acoustic album of duets with bassist and all-around awesome man Mike Anderson. The 77 El Deora album is called Blue Line, and the duet sets are together on Two Stroke. Country Music People in the UK reviewed both albums separately but in tandem. And highly regarded both. I can only hope my Nashville peeps who know good music are taking notice too.

Excerpts:

The CD is sometimes touched with genius. Unlike Maurice Tani's other new disc, this one has a wonderful natural flow, and it is very entertaining. It's probably Maurice Tani's least country disc, but probably his very best.

It is clear from the opening track, 'Out With The Old', that something special is happening. The superb arrangement, with the violin a highlight, is far superior to the original 2008 version sung by Jenn Courtney on Maurice Tani's 'Hammer And Tongs' release. The wonderful vocal fleshes out the melody better as well. All through the new CD are some of Maurice Tani's superb lyrics and melodies. This is pretty much a masterclass in producing very high quality songs. 'The Devil In My Ear', a warm country song dating back to 2005's 'Sirens', gets an acoustic update which makes it sounds slightly less country, but still great. The mandolin is important in the new version. Following this track is a traffic jam of amazing songs, from the delicate, fragile 'Radio City', to the dark ballad 'Poison', while 'Colour Me Gone' is plucking wonderful.
...
Maurice Tani and Mike Anderson have created a CD of warm, engaging, intelligent, entertaining music that seems utterly timeless. Maurice Tani wrote nine of these songs. It is kind of crazy that he is not so much better known. Hopefully, this release will put him on the musical map. A few weeks ago I had not heard of Maurice Tani. Now he is one of my favorite singer/songwriters. Maurice Tani and Mike Anderson have created a masterpiece.

Another review of note appeared in No Depression ("The Roots Music Authority"). I love No Depression, and was unreasonably entertained to hear the editors note that the comments to the reviews pushed that piece to the top of their site, and that the readers comments were the most articulate they've ever seen.

From the review:

I not only found them interesting, I was actually blown away. Maurice Tani writes songs that I would call “Hillbilly Noir” that sound at once familiar, ethereal and beautiful.
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Songs like “I Think of You”, “New Dress” and “Radio City” ( a crowd favorite at the Freight performance) sound like buried treasures…treasures that while having country elements in that they tell a story and employ traditional instrumentation, are their own thing. “New Dress” was written for Pam Brandon, which Tani describes as “one of the spookier songs in my repertoire”. Starting with a subtle breathy sigh that wouldn’t be out of place in a David Lynch movie, Tani explained that it’s “a song about rebirth, reinvention but also wide open to interpretation.”
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I would be remiss not to comment on Tani’s vocal style. He has a quality to his singing that is closer to a Raul Malo or a Roy Orbison, almost a classic cabaret voice, rather than a quirky, twangy bar voice, that brings a haunting feeling to many of his songs. His vocals on “Radio City” build on a form that Tani describes “as cinema for the blind”. You can imagine driving along a desolate road when this song comes on the radio “ a lost-love song where the protagonist is an all night disc jockey who laments that he has squandered his chance at love and finds himself alone and lonely in a one way conversation with thousands of people who only know his voice."

Added bonus! You can hear Maurice play a Summer Night Speakeasy with Mike Anderson & Steve Kallai, Gayle Lynn & The Hired Hands at Viracocha in Mission this Saturday at 8 pm.

And while you're at it, enjoy The Lovers Card, also recorded at Freight & Salvage, from 2010.