Si Wan Rec. 
Won Jae Lee : Life (4th) (KO,199?)***°
Possible airplay : track 1,3,(7)
Won Jae Lee’s voice and singing, with guitar picking can be slightly and only to a degree compared, as a new Korean folk/singer-songwriter, to Kim Doo Soo, with moments of the same seriousness and deep breathing inner calmness, often there’s also a lighter, pleasant note involved, the songs are just a bit more sing song. Perhaps the inspirations might be rooted in something a bit more basic or involved with family feeling based social relations.
The first track, like the second and also the third track, has additional arrangements of clarinet and a few accents of a second guitar and some mouth harmonica led passage(s). On the second song you also can hear a very small element of a blues drive in the song, Also on the third track, in the picking and hand shakers rhythms, there might be something of a blues rhythm underneath here too, the clarinet and the song singing are more swinging taking it into something more happy. Also on the fourth track, with small contributions by a female singer, and with reindeer bells, hangs a blues accent into the song line movement, the song is like an invitation to sing along with nostalgic feeling during the song drive line. More mouth harmonica you can hear the fifth track, and also on the 6th track is some moody harmonica, the guitar and the singer’s deep breathy voice remains dominant. The 7th track (acoustic picking and tambourine and voice) is a real blues song this time revealing this blues interest more directly for the first time. It is sung a bit higher at first too (by a different and second singer ?). The ninth track has a simple moody flute tune to some minor key picking before another song appears. Like some of the previous songs and some of the tracks hereafter this is, by hearing the mood, tune, voice and pickings directly only, without understanding the words, it remains a bit unclear what it is about. And in that way with some of the repetitive elements this unclearness annoys me just a little for a full length album. The tenth track reveals a happy blues inspiration again (picking and voice only), before one of these other comparable songs like before, accompanied by picking and some harmonica. The last track has a simple, cute melody, almost like a children song, with two picking guitars.
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