Rob Scallon, an indie musician from Chicago, Illinois brings us his fourth album, named after himself.
Rob is a talented musician, but is relatively unknown in the music world. His songs’ Youtube videos mostly average under 50 thousand views, with a handful of songs over because of referrals from popular YouTubers. These statistics would make him somewhat known within the indie and YouTube communities, on a nationwide level, compare him to someone like Justin Bieber, and he just seems like another artist trying to make it.
All of the music on this album is solo, fingerstyle guitar. What does this mean? The songs on this album are instrumental, no lyrics, just pure nylon strings. His other albums also contain this style of music, or may use other instruments.
This album, being completely instrumental, may be a huge downside and turn-off to many people. What is music without lyrics, many people would wonder. The catch of Rob’s music is the catchy melodies created, and the unorthodox techniques he uses in his songs.
One such technique is featured in his song “Summer,” soon after the song begins, you will notice that he will let notes ring out, and hits the wood body of his acoustic guitar. If you were to watch the official music video on YouTube, this is not a separate track where he hits the wood- he moves his hands from the fret board and normal strumming position to do this, effectively adding percussion to the song. As an actual guitarist, this is very difficult to pull off. The melody itself is very harmonious, relaxing, and catchy, made possible by the very intricate movements Rob makes to play some of these notes.
Another such technique he uses is called tapping, but done differently. Tapping is used by several guitarists, and is when you hit the fretboard hard enough to create the note, requiring no strum. Most see tapping as a heavy metal move, used by legends such as Randy Rhoads in the song “Crazy Train” and Eddie Van Halen, in many of his songs.
However, this style of tapping, is more unconventional and rarely seen. Rob describes it himself as, “meant to play the guitar like a piano.” On the piano, bass is played with the left hand, and the melody is played with the right, and Rob translates this to guitar, creating another very interesting, catchy, and relaxing song.
This album is overall catchy and harmonious. These songs are the types of songs in the background you picture yourself relaxing on the beach or watching the sunset with. Anyone can use this as a de-stresser, a relaxer, or inspiration.