Lately it seems like the things that Veritas has been involved with (whether directly or indirectly) has gotten a good deal of press. Below is an article that was published in the Sunday January 22 edition of the Lancaster Newspaper talking about the upcoming Denison Witmer concert scheduled for Saturday night. Wanted to put it here for people to read. Caught up in the music of life Native singer-songwriter Denison Witmer will play free show in city
Originally Published Jan 22, 2012 00:06 By MICHAEL SCHWARTZ Correspondent
For a guy with a new studio, new record, new label, new North American tour — and a new baby — Denison Witmer has an unabashed, downright sentimental fondness for the old.
On stage, the 35-year-old singer/songwriter still plays a generous helping of songs he wrote when he was 19, and he's outfitted his recording studio with vintage hardware such as a Trident mixing console and reel-to-reel tape machine to lend pristine digital tracks a bit of the warm, analog grit of classic records from Elvis Presley to Elvis Costello.
Witmer's two-month tour will crisscross the United States and Canada starting in early February, but local fans can see him play an intimate warm-up gig for free at 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 28, at the Community Room on Prince, above Prince Street Cafe in downtown Lancaster.
A self-described writer of "straight-out-of-my-journal-type songs," the Lancaster County native is a prolific composer of deeply personal songs that, while uniquely Witmer's, evoke artists such as Leonard Cohen, Neil Young (sans Crazy Horse) and contemporaries Iron & Wine.
Witmer, whom AllMusic once described as "an almost awkwardly honest lyricist," likened his performance approach to "covering my own songs."
"There is no real, definitive version of a song," he said. "What's on the record are just the sounds and harmonies I was interested in at the time."
A common thread runs through all great art, Witmer said, be it music or any other creative endeavor. The artist has to "allow space for individual interpretation."
"It's not my job to say what's true and what's false," he said. "My job is to create a space where something true can reveal itself, and with my music, I'm really on a journey to reveal something to myself."
Witmer's new album, "The Ones Who Wait," comes out March 6. This is his ninth record, but his first release with the Asthmatic Kitty label. Witmer said his process making this record differed from every other project he's done, in that it began as a relatively modest idea, but tragedy, blessings and life's tumult in general morphed it into something much bigger.
"This started as an EP," Witmer said, "but my dad got sick, and I came back to Lancaster. … He passed in February 2010 and I needed time to grieve and regroup, and then I came back into the studio and just kept writing and recording."
Witmer, who lives and records in Brooklyn, N.Y., built his studio in what had been unused warehouse space until a friend stumbled upon it and recognized its potential for recording. It needed a lot of work, though, so Witmer and his fellow musicians would only get out the guitars after a full day's work installing drywall.
During this period, Witmer's wife became pregnant, and their first child was born earlier this month. This all made for a heady two years, Witmer said, and it in turn helped him record his most ambitious project yet.
"There were all these big life events," Witmer said, "and I felt myself being swept into something, rather than the usual going into the studio and just laying something down."
Witmer doesn't claim to have made the greatest record in history, nor does he think that was the point. "Some songs are always going to be better than others, but that doesn't matter," he said. "What's important is to keep going forward and doing things that you find creatively fulfilling."
Denison Witmer will perform at 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 28, at the Community Room on Prince, above Prince Street Cafe, 15 N. Prince St. For more information, visit denisonwitmer.com or asthmatickitty.com/the-ones-who-wait.
Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/571837_Caught-up-in-the-music-of-life.html#ixzz1kdHDIUAv