Straw Dogs - Any Place At All (2000)

This fresh collection of acoustic-based, pop rock tracks showcases this award-winning songwriting duo's allegiance to the craft of songwriting and their abilities as performers.

From the intro guitar riff of 'The Way You Fade' to the sweet harmonies on the piano-based 'Always The One,' Straw Dogs walk the roads we all want to: roads that rise, and bend, and push us to run ahead in search of ourselves.

It's cool to think that laid-back folk-influenced pop/rock that focuses on dual harmonies and interesting storytelling can find a place in the bins as well as the coffeehouses in the 21st century. The acoustic guitar-driven duo of David von Beck and Darren Smith keeps the production on these laid-back tunes sparse so that one can fully absorb their lyrics. Some of them are a bit abstract (as on the upbeat opener "The Way You Fade"), but others are more concrete and romantic ("Kindle" features lush natural imagery, and "Laura" is a heartbreaking tale of moving on after a lover's death). They also engage in a bit of social commentary on tunes like "These Ashes." Yet even on the more obvious messages, the listener really has to study the words to get their full impact. The Dogs aren't quite Simon and Garfunkel, but they still offer an engaging change of pace in a world where production seems to take precedence over substance.