Tommy Sharp
State Street Breakdown

Tommy Sharp’s debut album, State Street Breakdown, introduces an artist of multiple talents: a singer with raw, organic power and achy vulnerability; a songwriter infused with the sounds and lessons of classic rock, from the garage to the top of the pop charts; and a guitarist who wields the sounds of chords, notes and the metallic ring and twang of his electric instrument with the deftness of one of his artistic and spiritual forebears – the River School Painters of Hudson, N.Y. Mostly, though, he puts it all together in such a direct way that he defies you to listen without sharing in his pain, joy, heartache, and generosity of spirit. In that sense, State Street Breakdown is that most human – and humane – gift. — Seth Rogovoy