SXSW 2014 Wrap-up

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Before the new album rollercoaster reaches full speed, we at Fullbright HQ thought we might take a moment to post a wrap-up report on this year’s SXSW.

It was crazy-busy: John played nine shows in four days! A good time was had.

Paste Magazine took in John’s show on Tuesday night:

“The One Who Lives Too Far” describes the collapse of a long-distance relationship as if it were as gradual and inevitable as the ice breaking up in the spring. Fullbright has a better voice and a less scathing attitude than Randy Newman, but when the young Oklahoman sings in that deadpan delivery and plays the piano with those Hollywood chord changes, he sounds as if he’s channeling the older Californian.

So did Gary Hizer:

Between his cerebral approach to everything, magnetic stage presence, and lyrics and delivery that have only matured and grown bolder like a fine Cabernet, he quite simply transcended the night. What is it he plays? Red Dirt? Folk? It’s certainly not country, although that’s part of it. If I had to name it something, it would be “Transcendental Blues.”

And Soundspike.com:

There are few performers—particularly those in their mid-20s—who leave me slack-jawed with lines of lyric (“If you never knew what never was, you’d never cry again.” Seriously?!) Couple that with a chill-inducing blues cover of Porter Grainger’s “Ain’t Nobody’s Business,” and you can see why I end up at every Fullbright performance I can.

And our good friends at NPR’s World Cafe:

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