MWK - The Sanctuary Live Sessions - First Reaction

As promised Thursday night, The Sanctuary Live Sessions, an acoustic EP was made available for download tonight on MWK's web site - and they're letting you choose what you think it's worth. This is the first time that I've heard of an artist doing this, but I think its nice that even if you can't afford much, you can still get the music. The EP is a compilation of 9 songs, all of which but 1 were released on previous albums. The new arrangements are in a word - gorgeous. I love the piano throughout the album and it's really nice to hear Neal doing backing vocals. He and Andy harmonizing is just incredible. Make Me, which to me is a song with a challenge weaved through it (Make me fall for you, as if I had nothing else to do) is now a piano ballad, which closes the album perfectly.

Till I'm Blue opens the EP with an arrangement similar to the original but with some amazing guitar playing by Neal. Add in backing vocals and Andy's voice which has matured over the years, and you have a song that captures the attention of the listener from the get go. And if that's not enough, having A Circle's Anthem right after Till I'm Blue will just make you stop what you're doing and just listen. This is my favorite track on the EP because I love how strong Neal's vocal is in the song. We don't get much backing vocal from Neal at all when he plays with David's band, so its really nice to hear it. I love his voice - its a great compliment to Andy's.

MWK - Under the Milky Way (Acoustic Cover)

This was a fun surprise!

On Friday 29th October 2010, @andyskib said:

Go to http://www.myspace.com/mwkmusic or http://www.nealtiemann.com to hear our cover of "Under The Milky Way" by The Church. The rest of MWK's "The Sanctuary Live Sessions" will be available for download at http://www.mwkmusic.com by 3pm PSD on Halloween!

It is AMAZING. You all need to go listen to it. Because I've never heard Andy's voice sound this rich and full in his lower register. Between that and the piano, its beautiful, sensual and intimate. I'll have my thoughts on the rest of the live sessions on the blog once I've had a chance to listen to and process it all.

MWK News!

For those of you who don't know who MWK are, they're the band that Neal Tiemann and Andy Skib played in with David in Tulsa. Anyway, Neal told us on twitter a few days ago that there would be an announcement regarding MWK coming by Friday, 5pm pacific time. This is what we got.

Just announced on Twitter:

@nealfingtiemann: Live, uncut, instudio, acoustic session release from MWK coming soon! More info to come. #MWK
6 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone


From nealtiemann.com:

17 September 2010
Neal and Andy to Record a Collection of Live, Acoustic MWK Songs
News

In some extra time Andy and I have from our main gig, we are going to be hitting the studio for a live session. We’ll be playing a batch of songs acoustically that span our MWK career. You may already know the titles of the songs, but we’re going to throw in some twists and turns that I know no one (not even me yet) has heard. And, for those still not satisfied, we will do early versions of some new material we’ve been working on for future, full-band releases. This session will be available soon in some form – we’re still discussing that part. There will also be music from this that will be streaming exclusively on nealtiemann.com and myspace.com/mwkmusic. I hope everyone will get as excited for this as we are to release it!


-Neal

Thanks to @honestys_easy on twitter for the picture. :)