Cheyenne - I Am Haunted, I Am Alive

All Music Guide

For its first album, Cheyenne was simply Oklahomabased singersongwriter Beau Jennings, who recorded this album with a handful of musician friends (including several members of Ester Drang, who had appeared in toto as his backing band on his 2003 debut EP) in lieu of a stable band. Often, such revolvingdoor efforts can sound scattered and unfocused due to the constantly changing cast of musicians, but I Am Haunted, I Am Alive is clearly the work of a musician with a singular vision. Folk and country influenced (there's quite a lot of banjo here, and hints of steel guitar) but rooted in a lowkey bedroom singersongwriter vibe that will be familiar to fans of everyone from Elliott Smith to Neutral Milk Hotel, the 12 songs on I Am Haunted, I Am Alive have Jennings' hushed, intimate vocals and acoustic guitar at their heart. Indeed, the arrangements often sound like Jennings' backing musicians are adding overdubs to his solo recordings, as opposed to fullband sessions, but the added instrume...nts are subtly layered to create a more rich, textured sound than many similar albums have. (The facile rock critic move here would be to mention Jennings' day job as an architect.) The drawback is Jennings' tendency towards selfconsciously poetic lyrics and his occasionally awkward, emoish vocal delivery, which blunt the appeal of otherwise solid tunes like "I Learned About Drugs From A Textbook." Both of these bad habits wereless evident on this album's superior (not to mention louder) followup, The Whale, so I Am Haunted, I Am Alive has the feel of a slightly premature debut recorded before the kinks were entirely worked out. - Stewart Mason, All Music Guide Read more Less