Out of the Woodwork

Album Review

This debut album by the Bay Area based composer and fingerstyle guitarist enjoyed a great deal of success in a wide variety of genres — new age, adult contemporary, soundtrack, and alternative markets. Nominated as a finalist for Best Album-New Age by the Independent Music Awards, Out of the Woodwork (whose original subtitle "Eclectic Modern Compositions for the Acoustic Guitar" perfectly reflects the album's graceful, free-flowing vibe) also hit the Top Ten on the New Age Reporter's Top 100 chart. Throughout 2007, the album had a significant impact on the independent radio market, being played across the country on classical, folk, and new age stations, in addition to NPR stations and prominent satellite radio channels like XM Audiovision and Sirius Spa. The hypnotic piece "Here We Go" was set to appear in the Tom Green film Shred 2, and several other songs were being used in both the radio and Showtime TV versions of This American Life. Although the listener hardly needs the imagery of exotic places to feel Blatt's rich emotions, many of the best tracks were inspired by special trips he's taken to Israel (the moody, hypnotic title track), Hawaii (the balmy, reflective "The Road to Poipu"), and Northern Italy (whose jaunty vibrancy and romance Blatt taps into on "Under the Sun"). In the mid- to late 2000s, Blatt was strictly an indie sensation but he had all the makings of a world-class fingerstylist that could take his career to a whole new level.