Chuck Ragan “Los Feliz”
Album Reviews | May 26th, 2007

Record Label: Side One Dummy Records
Genre: Acoustic
Band Link:
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Chuck Ragan is in Hot Water Music. I’ve never listened to Hot Water Music. Los Feliz is a live acoustic album. I don’t like live albums or acoustic music very much. Well, I decided to give this album and review a shot anyway.
Ragan’s acoustic stuff is a mixture of a little bit of country, a little bit of blues, some folk and some emo-sounding stuff. Quite frankly, none of that is really up my alley but there were some enjoyable songs on there. “Dream of a Miner’s Child” reminded me a lot of early Johnny Cash with its bluegrass beat and audience clapalong. Even though I didn’t like the subject matter in “Do You Pray”, the song had a great beat as well as some really good harmonic parts thrown in there. After awhile though, and as with most acoustic songs for me, every song starting to sound the same and I became bored with most everything else. I also feel that some of the songs are too religious and preachy for me. That was a big turn off on most of the songs.
Overall, I got what I thought I would get out of this album…a few decent songs to listen to and nothing more. Chuck Ragan is a great songwriter but most of the songs bored me.
Bottom Line: Live acoustic music bores me. This is no exception.
Notable Tracks: Dream of a Miner’s Child, Do You Pray
Overall Rating: