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Old Soul From Across the Room 

History and music are two concepts that can feel bigger than all of us. Yet at the same time they’re also things that each of us carries within, to connect with and be inspired by in our own individual ways. But, then, for all their infinite reach, history and music, when you get right down to it, have always been made by individuals. And on Old Soul from Across the Room, the debut album by singer-songwriter Sean Crimmins, it’s this paradoxical balance—between the personal confessionals of the songs’ characters and the epic sweep of times gone by—that resonates strongly.
“I’ve always been fascinated with history,” says Crimmins, who grew up rural Salt Point, New York, and started playing guitar and writing songs in college, inspired by Dave Matthews, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, and prewar bluesmen. “Technology moves so quickly, it seems like humanity is losing its essence. A lot of my songs are about preserving the character of what’s come before.”
But Old Soul from Across the Room isn’t “old time” music. “Timeless” is a better word. It places the singer’s image-rich songs in a sprawling, acoustic-psychedelic setting of stringed instruments, horns, piano, light percussion, and massed backup vocals. Yes, tracks like “Christmas 1914” are indeed inspired by historical events. Yet there’s also “Don Giovani,” a jubilant gypsy jazz distillation of the Mozart opera whose sound recalls Crimmins’ side project, the Heartstrings Hot Club; and “Parachute,” a quiet, poignant narrative about “getting through rough times by doing the right things” that brings the record in for a soft landing.
“Storytelling is becoming a lost art,” says the singer. “Great songs don’t cater to someone whose entire life is perfect. They should be able to take a listener out of the gutter and onto the mountaintop.”
And Sean Crimmins’s songs are a fine way to get there.

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~ Peter Aaron, Chronogram Magazine

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