Vincent Poag releases album

Singer/songwriter Vincent Poag has released his debut collection of songs, Circling Back (Danal Music). It’s an apt title as it hearkens back to this native New Yorker’s days as an underground Atlanta singer/songwriter. Poag, in fact, has had many lives. John Lennon, one of his heroes, wrote that life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans. So it has been for Poag. Immersing his creative talents in the business world spending years carving out a highly successful career, his musical dreams lay dormant and his songs unheard. Until now.

With a voice somewhere between Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits, and his singular compositional flair, Poag’s 12 well-crafted songs span the vagaries, the haunts, the promises and the lessons of life itself. “Lawless Lady” is the ultimate whore’s lament. “I’ll Be Seeing You Soon,” a poignant reminder of where he’s been and where he’s going, ends the album on a harder rocking note. These songs house the poetic side of a man’s soul, a side ignored for way too long, yet he’s still not above having a little fun on a track like “Eat My Shorts.” The songs cascade across a musical spectrum of pop, rock, balladry, even world-music. Like “Stress.”

“Stress” is the key, its lilting island rhythms lulling the listener into a false sense of complacency. It’s collaboration between Poag and Bahamian artist Phil Stubbs who Poag tracked down 10 years after hearing an earlier version of the song. “He’s a national treasure,” says Poag of Stubbs. “He’s like my Bahamian brother…a class act who sings about such uplifting things.” For the third week in a row, this song has been the #1 most added on the FMQB AC chart.

Circling Back features the talents of guitarist Mark Newman and lead singer Diana Hope (“Lawless Lady”). Its musical bed is rich and lush with cello, violin, viola, mandolin, clarinet, tenor sax, baritone sax, keyboards, French Horn, tuba, trumpet, trombone, dobro, accordion, oboe and, of course, guitar/bass/drums.

But it’s Poag’s attack at the center of the storm. His words. His idiosyncratic vocal delivery. The surprising twists and turns that each song takes, songs that get under your skin upon repeated listening. It’s funny but you just never know what a man has in him. In Vincent’s Poag’s case, what one sees on the outside is a family man who worked hard all his life, ultimately reaping the financial reward for such dedication. Yet with the release of Circling Back, one sees so much more.

For more information on Vincent Poag, please visit http://www.vincentpoag.com/ Check out the video for “Stress” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF00XZewA_c