Willamette Week Review

Willamette Week insinuation about Elliott/One Trick Pony
I would like to say that I just was forwarded a review of my new CD by the Willamette Week in Portland, Oregon. In the review the writer Casey Jarman favorably reviews my new CD(thanks) Enter to Exit, but this writer also insinuates in this article that my song "One Trick Pony" is a "stab" at the late Elliott Smith. This is absolutely incorrect. I knew and performed on bills with Elliott/heatmiser since1996 and I have had/have nothing but the greatest respect for him as an artist and as a human being, so to clear things up for ya'll........ this particular song is about me...me....me! Hey aren't they all?
DONT BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ!
Below is the aforementioned review-
FERNANDO ENTER TO EXIT (IN MUSIC WE TRUST) Portland pop veteran recalls Elliott and John on his way to eviscerating the Posies. [POP] My first listen to Fernando's Enter to Exit coincided with my rediscovery of the Posies, which I found to be a pretty happy music- critic accident. Fernando's veteran Portland frontman, Fernando Viciconte, has a similar musical vision to the influential Posies CEO, Ken Stringfellow, as both twist the Beatles' warmly layered girl- song formulas to accommodate more somber and personal narratives. Both frontmen also share slightly feigned accents, though Viciconte ditches Stringfellow's nasal whine for John Lennon-esque pronunciation and tone. To the eager ear, Fernando will also draw Elliott Smith comparisons which are fair game in a town where Smith's influence is unavoidable. The doubled vocals and guitar stabs of "One Trick Pony" are eerily similar to Smith's darker work, with lyrics about "scars on my arm" keeping it suspect as a dig at the late Portland songwriter. The Lennon influence, though, is what really shines through on Enter to Exit. It's crystal-clear on "Everybody Knows," where Viciconte repeats "Everybody Knows/ Reapin' what you sow" in his best Lennon walk-down vocal over a jangly guitar line. But Viciconte's vocal presence is warmer than Lennon's, and devoid of the late Beatle's pissed-at-the-world baby-screams. If Fernando, the band, wears its influences on its sleeve, it certainly doesn't hurt Enter to Exit as an album. Viciconte is a formidable, personal songwriter, and his confessional tone finds a perfect vessel in the band's well-timed twists, turns and key changes. The production is seamless when it needs to be and absolutely epic at other times. Fernando's album-ending "Waiting," which takes a cue from "I Shall Be Released," is one of the more gorgeously thick tracks I've heard in a long time. The tune is carried by its slightly psychedelic production and Viciconte's commanding vocals, and it holds a couple of the many chill-inducing moments on Enter to Exit, which Fernando hides like easter eggs throughout. If the rest of Fernando's back catalog is as hook-laden and charming as this pop jewel, I'm pretty much over the Posies. CASEY JARMAN.