Acoustic-emo will always have a home with Seattle’s Rocky Votolato. Although December saw the unceremonious end of his loud-ish band, Waxwing, Votolato continues his quiet solo soul-searching with Makers. Filled with mellow heartbreak songs and simple plucking, Makers is not a whole lot different than Votolato’s previous solo work. Tambourine and harmonica weave their way through the disc, and coupled with gloomy, lovelorn lyrics and Votolato’s scratchy Valium voice, Makers makes a perfect rainy-day soundtrack. Two highlights on a disc of sad-dude-with-a-guitar standards are ‘She Was Only in it for the Rain’ and ‘Tennessee Train Tracks’, which venture into alt-country territory with seedy, whiskey-tinged undertones — perhaps a perfect start for a guy who’s been trying to escape his dark emo past. While Votolato might benefit from a throat lozenge and a reference copy of Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, you can’t knock a guy for being consistent.
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