Shiva Me Timbers Review

Review of Shiva Me Timbers in December issue of New Orleans OffBeat Magazine:

"San Francisco-based singer-songwriter and guitarist Che Prasad on this solid Nola-infused release showcases remarkable musical and lyrical dexterity as he expertly moves between Western and Eastern, melancholy and rowdy, California and Crescent City. Here, Pasad’s expert, mystical sitar strumming on “Shadows from the East” is comfortably at home with the rowdy, loose J.J. Cale-s boogie of “Early Checkout.” Dreamy, Dylan-esque narratives (“Jeffrey Burgler”) co-exist with the bawdy ragtime of “You Never Liked Me”—a tune highlighted by the vocals of Meschiya Lake and the sousaphone of Matt Perrine, two local favorites (along with guitarist Alex McMurray and vocalists Luke Allen and Kiyoko McCrae, who kills it on “Another Show”) appearing throughout an album partially recorded in New Orleans at now-shuttered Piety Street Studios. Louisiana clearly left her mark on this West Coast talent, evident when Prasad gives a Tom Waits growl for a “breath of Crescent City” in “Take Me to Confession,” a raucous romp led by McMurray’s searing blues leads for a haunting soundscape that resonates with the freaky soundtrack of HBO’s True Blood."

Full review at: Shiva Me Timbers review in New Orleans OffBeat Magazine

Shiva Me Timbers Review

 Review in The Marin Independent Journal by Paul Liberatore on July 5, 2013:

Che Prasad, a San Anselmo pathologist and accomplished multi-instrumentalist, shows his command of an impressive array of musical styles and influences — from sea shanties and country rock to North Indian classical music and American folk — on this extraordinary debut album.

The 11 original songs in this collection were inspired by Prasad's family and the characters he's come across in his dual career as a physician and musician.

The centerpiece is "Shadows from the East," written about his Indian father and American mother and set to a droning sitar track that immediately recalls George Harrison. Prasad is more than familiar with the late Beatle's music, having played in the Hairy Sons, a Harrison tribute band, with his brother, Mikie Lee Prasad, who produced the album and co-wrote most of the songs.

The Prasads also played in a Dire Straits tribute band, the Prasad Brothers in Arms, which explains the Mark Knopfler sound of the opening song, "Early Checkout." There are echoes of Jerry Garcia's soulfully strained vocal style on "Afraid of the Sting," Tom Waits never growled harder than Prasad does on the story song "Take Me to Confession," and only a pathologist could authoritatively write a song like "The Italian Pathologist," with the line, "Pointing out sights everyone sees/His eyes are trained to find disease."

For full review: