The inner sleeve states, “This recording was made using 100% Green-e certified renewable energy.” Interesting, seeing as how Kelley Stoltz has, and will be, marked for not making bigger attempts to conceal his various Lennon-, Wilson-, and Beefheart-isms. His music does recall the low-key psychedelic feel of latter-day Beatles and the melodic psych-rock of Captain Beefheart, and so on. But this inclination to renew the sounds of old is no crime, because Stoltz creates his own identity within the DIY framework of his trademark multi-track layering, playing most of the instruments himself, and doing quite of bit of experimentation within. Shimmering guitar-based blues-ballads, sunshiny, hopeful melodies paired with a touch of brininess, memorable piano banging and vocal harmonies — this record is an achievement in its conception alone, which involved editing nearly 100 songs down to 13. Upon the first listen of Below the Branches, the sense that you’re listening to a big dreamer, alone in a room recording his own fantasyland harvested from a youth spent admiring the sun-kissed side of classic rock, is unmistakably charming.
