Through his endless genres’ experimentation, the genre-switching singer, songwriter, storyteller, drummer, and rapper Daniel Sherman steps into a folk-inspired area with his new EP “Chronicles of a Calloused Heart, Part 2” released via Hendrickson Studios on the 10th of June, 2022. Sherman is sharing some real short stories reflecting on an experience he had, making this a heartfelt true EP and -as he described it- one of the most emotional pieces he has ever written.
Daniel Sherman starts the journey with “Come as I Am”, a multi-layered, well-written, and arranged opener. It has a beautiful smooth flow with great dynamics, starting with Sherman’s soothing vocals accompanied by piano and acoustic guitars then slowly, he starts building up and adding more instruments and layers making it sound bigger and more emotional. Daniel Sherman’s expressive vocals made every part of the song counts from the hard-hitting drum parts to the heavy emotional violins. “Terrified” comes next with an emotional vocal melody over deep acoustic guitar chords, it escalates musically keeping the mood with its slow pace with the piano and acoustic guitar in beautiful harmony all topped by Sherman’s heartfelt lyrics and vocal harmonies. The sound gets more open with lots of breath in “I Was Wrong”, I believe this is my favorite track off this EP, it mixes Sherman’s insanely emotional vocal melodies and his ability to steer the song’s flow with his vocals with some really heavy emotional music writing. It sounded like he mixed all the good parts and progressions of the previous two songs and perfected them in “I Was Wrong”, especially with the catchy vocals and the way the violins are mixed with guitars, percussions, and orchestrations, those parts with the “I wanna turn the page….” Part sent shivers down my spine. I totally felt that man!
The EP ends with “God” which sums up all of Sherman’s sound and direction with this EP while adding some hopeful mood into it with more colorful yet deep melodies closing it on a high note.
“Chronicles of a Calloused Heart, Part 2” is an intense authentic journey of melodies by Daniel Sherman. It shows his top music writing abilities and his unique way of transferring his feelings through words and singing. I will be looking forward to part 1 that’ll be out in 2023 and to Sherman’s next musical adventure, cheers!