"Vancouver-based troubadour DeCroo made converts with his last album, the live disc War Torn Man. His following deserves to increase radically with this new tour-de-force, one already notching rave reviews. DeCroo is an original and Mockingbird Bible represents uneasy listening at it's best."
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Exclaim
"A transcendent work of art."
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No Depression, USA
"Mockingbird Bible is a soulful, quiet and absolutely brilliant collection of songs from one of Canada's premier musical talents. Decroo has yet again proven himself to be one of the country's best songwriters."
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24 Hours
"These are serious songs sung by a serious songwriter and played by a band completely in sync. Put DeCroo and his band in front of a UK audience and there’s a career to be made. Mockingbird Bible is a perfect blend of dark folk, country yearning and indie cool. Uncut should be lapping it up."
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Leicester Bangs, UK
"Across 13 tracks, DeCroo weaves his thematically impressive tales of loneliness and despair sounding as if he's been doing this sort of thing since birth."
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-Americana UK
"The comparisons come quick when listening to this Pittsburgh-born troubadour and his capable band, caught live here at Edmonton ’s Sidetrack. His high, rough and robust vocals suggest Neil Young and Bob Dylan, though it’s really the former, and Steve Earle to boot, that War Torn Man’s 13 tunes bring to mind. It isn’t just the raw, rugged, blues-charged country rock, though, it’s DeCroo’s clear-eyed, deftly articulated conveyance of both his own hard-knock history and the hard knocks recent history has dealt so many."
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Montreal Mirror
"Every now and again an album comes along that right from the opening bars you just know it’s gonna be on the nail. This is such an album. Before this cd landed on my desk I’d never heard of Rodney DeCroo. Now I can’t get enough of him.
Readily compared to Steve Earle, Neil Young, Dylan, John Prine and Gram Parson there are shades of them all here. A composite if you like. His rootsy sound gets better with every listen. A story teller par excellence."
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Americana UK
"Rodney DeCroo is a hidden Canadian music treasure, but look for the genie to escape the bottle with his new release War Torn Man."
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The Daily Gleaner
"There are many lyrical high notes in host of well written and executed songs throughout the album. A fine collection of personal and memorable songs."
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Allgigs.co.uk
"a true original, a tough, elemental music that wastes not a single line, gesture, or note."
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Penguin Eggs
"Rodney DeCroo's new live album (recorded at Edmonton's legendary Sidetrack Cafe) is dedicated to his Dad, a Vietnam veteran, a Father who was never the same after his tour of duty. It is especially apropos these days as it seems as though America is in the process of creating another generation of "war torn men." If Stephen Harper has his way, Canada might be about to do so too. Rodney comes from the Folk/Country school of music, and his songs here are very beautiful, but they are not "pretty" or "nice." They speak of dark pasts and horrible deeds. But as a eulogy to a life damaged beyond recognition, it has a realism and poignancy that speak of an understanding of the way life is, rather than the way it should be."
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The Tyee
"The life-torn man with the well-worn voice comes up with a live CD recorded at Edmonton’s Side Track Café for this, his second album entitled War Torn Man. It is a strangely intense recording, for listening to Decroo and his band knit together this performance one note at a time has the same tense, riveting feel as watching a drunkard stagger upon a tightrope where a net is a wish best saved for another day. They sound like a do-or-die band, and fortunately, they do."
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Fast Forward
"Rodney Decroo’s newest release, War Torn Man, marks a search for the artist’s freedom from his past. The poet/musician dedicates the album to his father, a Vietnam veteran. Decroo anchors his music in his poetry, such that where the poetry ends and the music begins is impossible to discern. Pieces such as "Rain Rain" show us the man’s thoughts between the drops, searching for an escape from his reality, in a kind of Bachian fugue. "War Torn Man" represents the psychology of a permanent impact, a footprint in a man’s history. Decroo incites his listeners to think as though music were a higher expression of philosophy."
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The Fulcrum
"There isn’t a note or a line on the CD that doesn’t sound like it’s coming from the heart. You can tell Rodney DeCroo loves to do what he does. He is known for his extensive touring schedule, and having DeCroo release his album live captures him in his natural element of performing in front of his many fans."
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Scene and Heard
"Recorded live at Edmonton's Sidetrack Cafe, War Torn Man is Rodney DeCroo's tribute to his Father... a man destroyed by his service in the Vietnam War. Considering that there is another generation of walking time bombs being created as we speak, Rodney's album has a resonance today that is both sad and chilling. In the hallowed murder ballad / protest song tradition of such Folk / Country icons as Phil Ochs, Steve Earle and Nick Cave, War Torn Man goes to some dark places... places where, even if you can shine a light, you might not be happy about what you see."
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Red Cat News
"Put the gruff-but-sensitive singer-songwriter in just about any other Canadian city besides Vancouver and you’re looking at a sold-out show and maybe even a little bit of hysteria over one of the finest tunesmiths out there. Run, don’t walk, in other words, before they all piss off to Montreal or something!"
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Georgia Straight
"It’s highly recommended that you make the trek down to see him debut the songs from War Torn Man, which we can add to the exalted ranks of kick ass live albums–from Cheap Trick’s Live at Budokan to The Who’s Live at Leeds."
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See Magazine
"Lots of guys can sing like Bob Dylan
Hardly any write songs that are thrillinz
But DeCroo's words ring true
He rocks like Neil, too
On this live set, he's ready and willing."
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Winnipeg Sun
"His songs seem like a threadbare suit that feels good to wear, and he sings meaning every word. Folk-rock that's pushing the boundaries."
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The Province
"The high, ripped-lung voice of Rodney DeCroo takes only a few seconds to get used to, and the Vancouver-by-Pennsylvania singer-songwriter has a history, with things on his mind. On a live recording from Edmonton's Sidetrack club, the Dylan-goes-grunge thing is pretty cool, with a coppery electric guitarist Jon Wood who's a star too. The sad Standing in the Doorway should be a country classic. Gritty passion abounds, but then comes the last-track title song, where a Vietnam vet's son sings starkly about a father with a bombed-out heart. Suddenly the rest of the album seems awfully puny in comparison. That says plenty, mister -- and don't you dare ask for an encore. The show is done, and well done."
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Globe and Mail
"Early Dylan vocals don't obscure Canadian Rodney DeCroo's talent for articulating the bleaker side of life. Stripped down to the basics, with just the odd contribution from the likes of Sam Parton (Be Good Tanyas), DeCroo sings the soundtrack to the late night lock-in while the rain beats down outside."
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Rock-N-Reel, UK
"This album knocked me out within 30 seconds of hitting 'play' and has continued to relentlessly beat the shit out of me. Not that I'd expect DeCroo to show me any mercy. He's a tough-as-nails, bearded bastard who recalls Dylan circa his Rolling Thunder Revue days. War Torn Man finds him in his live element, live onstage, encouraging those in attendance to eat out of his hand but slapping them in the face when they get close. DeCroo's blue-collar work ethic inhabits every tune, and even the homey bass lines from former Spirit of the West member Linda McRae can't put a spit shine on DeCroo's rough edges and two-packs-a-day voice. The chemistry between DeCroo and guitarist Jon Wood suggests they may have been separated at birth, and it's this gritty cohesiveness and Wood's excellent fretwork that take this album from very good to fantastic."
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Now Magazine
"Mockingbird Bible puts DeCroo into a new league."
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The Tyee
"The hushed volume of Rodney DeCroo’s new CD isn’t the sound of shyness; it’s the sound of grief."
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See Magazine
"Rodney Decroo knows what he is doing, he is a consummate professional. The album Mockingbird Bible has a solidity, a care to the details of music making, and a fullness that is fairly rare. The instrumentation, though acoustic, is not spare or anaemic, the song writing is complicated, and filled with the kind of narratives of desire and abstraction that attach themselves to songwriters that might work later on short stores or novels."
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Left Hip
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"Mockingbird Bible is an instant roots classic."
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Lethbridge Herald
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"He’s earned the right after his previous records to step back some, maybe turn on a light and breath easy for a while, but he doesn’t, instead wondering if it’s rain falling or gasoline, at the same time striking a match to learn the truth."
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Vue Weekly
