Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

A man can surely not be all things to all men, but he can be an architect, a painter, and a social commentator in one timeless motion, a thinker, a polymath of the soul to whom art captures the most seemingly everyday emotions and sights and turns them into a dramatic exercise of human observations and the nuance of portrayal of stories and weaved musical charm.

For Dean Friedman, a man who is so at ease with himself on stage as he is with those who seek him out to either pass on praise or just to shyly shake his hand, Liverpool is almost a second home to the American Lullaby and the outstanding gravitas of the ordinary made significant.

Making his way to The Capstone Theatre’s stage the audience roundly applauded Mr. Friedman, memories of past gigs in the city, the stories of insightful happenings rocketed past their eyes, and brought the understanding of keen introspection and out worldly observance to the backdrop of star like lights on the curtain behind the piano and the embrace of a crowd always ready for more.

To say the artist is beloved by his fans would be an understatement, there is a joyous contemplation to be found as you look around the faces of the attendees between songs, as they drink in the inspiration for the songs, and as the two set evening played out without drama, with grace, with a subtle smile of deference to the people and places he has lived in and visited, and observed.

With songs such as Company, the exceptional Shopping Bag People, Jennifer’s Baby, God Of Abraham, Lydia, the song ridiculously banned by the B.B.C., McDonald’s Girl, Rocking Chair (It’s Gonna Be Alright), the fantastic retort to local heroes Half Man Half Biscuit’s superb The B****** Son Of Dean Friedman, A Baker’s Tale, Under The Weather, and the sweet pleasure of It’s My Job, the evening was filled with demonstratable cheer and a generosity of spirit that is forever undeniable.

There is always room for such an artist and framer of human existence, and in Dean Friedman there is a truth forever exposed between the honest easy smile and the friendship he makes through his music.
A fantastic journey into the mind and experiences of one of America’s finest creators of music; the return to the Capstone Theatre hugely appreciated.

Ian D. Hall