The Dear Hunter (Acts I, II, & III)

Another band that doesn't get the recognition it should is The Dear Hunter. It's a band that, in my opinion, cannot fit into one genre. Yes it's a rock band, but there are influences of every type of rock you can think of: folk rock, dance rock, pop rock, rock ballads, among others. The Dear Hunter also seems unafraid to delve into other types of music too, shown in The Color Spectrum series of EPs.

What started as a side project for Casey Crescenzo's music that didn't fit with his band at the time The Receiving End of Sirens, ended up becoming a full time duty for him. He had originally planned not to really pursue it until he released his self-recorded demos and people loved it.

When he knew he had fan support he recorded an EP, which turned out to be the first act of his six album story, entitled Act I: The Lake South, The River North. The idea for this story was that it would follow the birth, life, and abrupt death of a boy known only as The Dear Hunter.

In Act I we are presented with the conception and birth of the main character to a prostitute named Ms. Terri. Some notable songs on this first act are "The Inquiry of Ms. Terri," "The Pimp and the Priest," and "His Hands Matched His Tongue." Each one lasts about six minutes and vary in the tempos and themes of the song. The last of the three is probably my favorite because it exemplifies one of my favorite things about this band, Casey's incredible vocals. His voice is smooth, but has a big range. Click here to listen.

In Act II: The Meaning of, and All Things Regarding Ms. Leading the main character's mother, Ms. Terri, dies and he goes in search of information on his mother. He goes to a bordello and falls in love with a prostitute Ms. Leading, but they fall out of love. Another great part of this story are the names of the characters. Ms. Terri is an obvious mystery to our hero and Ms. Leading is a misleading character for our hero.

This act has an incredible amount of good songs to the point that I couldn't pick out even just three that are my favorite. So for that reason I'll pick the most famous song they have: "Red Hands." It starts off slow, but picks up by the end and is another awesome example of Casey's voice. This time not staying smooth the entire time when he stretches to the outskirts of his range. It's a fun song to listen to and just jam out to. Listen here.

Entitled Act III: Life and Death, the most critically acclaimed and probably most diverse album yet has a very interesting story that can only be pulled out after listening to it many times. Here goes my best interpretation. We find our hero has become a soldier and is fighting in a war. He finds his father while he is telling stories of his time in the bordello to other soldiers. Then he gets saved by an unnamed soldier who turns out to be his step-brother. His step-brother gets killed and his father shows no remorse. So, our hero poisons his father to try and take his step-brother's place with his step-mother. In the end our hero reflects on what has happened in his life and he questions whether or not he'll be able to love again.

Act III, like the second act, is outstanding. I think Act III stands out simply because it is so diverse. Beginning with a purely (for most of it) acapella track leading into a smashing of guitars and strong drumming in the background. It's a great opening to a record. One of my favorite things about this record is the fact that it starts out quiet and slow and ends quiet and slow, but throughout the middle we get piano rock, heavy rock, and awesome harmonies throughout. Two of my favorite songs are "He Said He Had A Story" (here) and "The Beautiful Life" (here). The first of the two is the story of our hero's time in the bordello with Ms. Leading from Act II. It's a funny story and very well thought out. Backing vocals provide the soldiers responses to "The Dear Hunter's" story. "The Beautiful Life" is another fantastic song with great vocals and interesting lyrics and a fantastic tempo change in the middle it's a fun song to sing-along to in the car or wherever really.

This band is very fun to listen to and I try and tell everyone I know about them. I try and get everyone to listen to them and help spread the word. It seems to be working, but who knows, maybe my friends are just appeasing me and agreeing with me so I stop telling them to listen to this band. Since this already is really long. I'm doing another post about them sometime about The Color Spectrum series and about the first time I saw them live.