When you hear many singer-songwriters, it often seems they are attempting to fit a formula -- paying their dues to some great folksinger that came before. Joel Cage came from a different background as is evidenced with his second release, Nobody. A vibrant force on the Boston acoustic scene, Cage delivers powerful songs both instumentally and vocally. With many years of rock 'n' roll behind him, Joel sings with great range, and plays guitar flawlessly thoughout. Joel Cage is in fact a guitar monster. Self-produced, Nobody is well-crafted, but not overproduced. Cage plays all of the instruments heard on the recording with some help from Theo Colburn on cello, Richard Gates, and Warren Smith on fretless bass, and James Greenfield on percussion on only a few tracks. This fact gives Joel's work an intimate feel that is evidenced on all songs. True to his roots, Cage leads off with a rock-inflected heartbreak song, "Lover." We are then lead into folkier territory, in which Joel shows us his mastery of the love song with "Wander." A testament to a potential new mate, Joel begs acceptance, and even offers to handle all the chores, and promises to never wander. What kind of male makes these promises? Joel Cage does, for he obviously knows love first hand. Another fine example is the title track. "

There ain't nobody smells the same way -- like flowers from a brook on a crisp autumn day -- a scent from which no righteous hound would ever stray."

You would think that this heavy-hitter sits around all the time reading love poetry. These sentiments play well off of his heavy-handed guitar style creating an interesting contrast. One pinnacle moment on the recording is Joel Cage's rendition of U2's "Where The Streets Have No Name," shortened here to simply "Streets" (in fact all the song titles are one worded). The dynamic power he pulls from his 1942 Gibson acoustic archtop guitar is amazing. This version has all the energy of U2 with Cage's power-vocals. It's not necessarily folk - Jonathan Colcord