Talking House Productions put together a stellar line up last Sunday night to celebrate the Preview of Luke Franks or the Federalists’ debut CD, The Way We Ran, new from Talking House Records this month.

The show kicked off about 7:30 with up and coming rockin’ folk trio David Luning and the Third Wheels. I have written plenty already in previous blogs about David’s natural gift and his raspy provocative vocal style. Let me just say that his talents were very much in evidence as he and drummer Zak Garn and bass John Luther performed 8 of David’s original songs. David’s lyrical style is conversational, organic and you feel like you know the guy when he’s singing. He can put a song over, and that’s a rare gift. Zak, sensitive percussionist with some nice brushwork and foot tamb, and John’s solid acoustic bass guitar skills kept it all locked down. I think I heard a new one, Did Nothing Wrong, which is more complicated songwriting than David’s earliest stuff — demonstrating David’s continued growth as an artist. David was a recent guest on the Palo Alto-based Cable Access television show. View David’s five song set on blip tv.

Nic Russo, Jeremy Robins & Sloan Denton make up Soft Stories, alternative R&B with a lot of flourishes that kick. I don’t know what it is about these three, but we’re invited to play with them in their musical world. Their music is characterized by an open transparent sound, fun vocal arrangements either in duet or counterpoint with some light false setto tossed in, interesting mix of rhythms, all the while with a solid driving rock beat thundering away delivered by a competent no-nonsense drummer. They’re finding a unique voice, and they are worth monitoring.

The third band, Soft White Sixties, channels 60s R&B beautifully, but brings it up to us with melodies that are current, fresh and with a rolling lyrical movement. Octavio Genera, Aaron Ferguson, Ryan Noble, Joey Bustos and Aaron Eisenberg piled it on with three, (were there three guitars?) plus bass, and a set of keys with a punky rocky drummer pounded it out for us. They would get the dance band award of the evening perhaps. However, for me they were not balanced for the room and the vocals were overpowered. Having a weakness for lyrics, I like to hear enough of them to follow the song — which was not possible for me Sunday night — except in the lovely ballad I’d Rather Lie. The lead vocal has very compelling voice and he connects well with the audience. I hope to hear a CD from them someday. Any plans for a CD, guys?

Personable Luke Franks took the stage with the Federalists, Jason Roysdon on Guitar, Ruben Rios on Drums, and Aaron Schmidt on Bass. Luke played guitar and sang us through 15 highly differentiated solid songs, shapeshifting easily from indie pop to rock country. Their clean and polished sound was stand-out without sounding affected or self-conscious. I’ll attribute that balance to Luke’s down-to-earth personality (I spoke with him after his set), some excellent production work and of course caring enough to practice to that sweet tightness. Luke’s songs are well-structured and have great hooks and twists, with unusual story lines that I could get. So they gave us good arrangements, solid musicianship and melodies with gotcha choruses. What else? Luke’s got another one of those wonder voices. What is it about it? Conversational, relaxed, mellifluous, smooth like good coffee and rich without artifice. If I heard Benjamin and Bonnie and Over It’s Over played every hour on the radio tomorrow, I would not be surprised. Excellent song-crafting there.

I gather the band used to be “The Federalists”, but with some personnel changes due to the rigors of touring, and with Luke stepping up as the lead vocalist and the principal songwriter, the name change seemed the way to go and kicks in with this CD.

The band kicks off its November Western tour with a show on November 12 in Portland, Oregon. They’ll be back in town on Thanksgiving weekend for their official CD release party at the Rickshaw with Dizzy Balloon on November 28.