David Dondero - South of the South

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Epic sixth album from indie troubadour focuses on Florida

Given that David Dondero is often listed as one of the many influences jostling for position in the music created by friend Conor Oberst, it seems fitting that Dondero’s first album on Oberst’s Team Love label would share so much conceptual and sonic territory with Bright Eyes’ 2005 acoustic opus, I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning. Like Oberst, Dondero employs a humble bedding of acoustic guitars, pedal steel and wavering vibrato to create a setting where he can weave together themes of small-town disillusionment, restlessness and the desire for something more. But while his lyrical couplets are every bit as devastating as Oberst’s, his arrangements and performances are slightly less dynamic. Despite the depth of his writing, Dondero never sounds as though he’s desperate to be heard.