Blind Uncle Harry – “Kimberly Kankowski”

Blind Uncle Harry – “Kimberly Kankowski” – Single Review

Absence makes the heart grow what again?

On the brightest side of the scenario, I’ll never forget Blind Uncle Harry as an artist.  Dude’s weird, that’s a fact.  Lots of folks are weird – Blind Uncle Harry is the kind of weird that stands out & you remember.  I had a positive experience in listening to a track called “Song For Kori” back in the spring of 2021, but it’s been a bit of a struggle to get behind the man ever since in reviewing songs that we’ve featured here on our pages like “I Just Want You To Know” and “Burn Down The High School” from 2022.  I think I was hoping maybe this new single “Kimberly Kankowski” might make a little more sense to me after about three years distance between the last time I was listening to Blind Uncle Harry and now…but it doesn’t.

I’m still not sure I get it if I’m being truthful with ya.  It’s like a punked-up Folk version of Pavement, but recorded with the aloof nature you’d find in pre-Geffen releases by Beck…and in many ways, that should all add up to something I’d normally respond to.  Ultimately, I have no choice but to be honest – I find Blind Uncle Harry’s music more challenging to listen to than I feel like it needs to be.  Like, for example, if we’re talkin’ about the main hook of “Kimberly Kankowski” on its own, then I’d be the first to tell you that the guy’s onto something…the singing of the name in the title of this tune, completely works.  The melody is great, and honestly, it’d be universally appealing if that’s what Blind Uncle Harry wanted it to be…but I’m not nearly as convinced that that’s the mission he’s on.  Even the lines around the titular character of this song in the chorus would be a stretch for many to like by comparison, but I’d still be willing to vouch for the melody & vocal structure being good enough to keep’em listening.  Which is, pretty much the opposite of how I feel about just about everything else…the verses in this tune are just on the edge of disaster, in my opinion.  Have I heard worse?  You betcha, of course I have…I’ve been doin’ this a very long time.  But I don’t think that Blind Uncle Harry was going for better than the worst.

So…I get the conundrum here.  If he was to clean things up to a polished shine, you’d be taking the Blind Uncle Harry outta the Blind Uncle Harry tunes…and I doubt that Blind Uncle Harry would want that.  In that respect, he’s kinda stuck with this loose jangle acoustic madness that appeals to a certain narrow slice of the potential audience out there, but I suppose if you live by the sword you gotta die by it too.  To recommend that he makes the kind of significant changes he’d need to in order to broaden out the level of accessibility and interest in what he creates would be to completely change his entire style, character, and persona…and I genuinely don’t think that’s the fairest route to take, or suggest, either.  My question then, is whaddya do?  Do you wait for the world to catch onto something they might never catch onto at all?  Do you settle for the slice of the pie you get when it comes to the potential audience out there, and don’t worry about all the other people that could hear your music?  Do you grit your teeth and make the necessary stylistic/technical changes in order to expand the reach of your music?

We each answer these kinds of questions in our own individual way, and it always depends on what the goals are.  I don’t think too many people in music go into making it thinking that they really don’t care if people listen or not…I think the vast majority of artists and bands make music because they really DO hope someone’s gonna listen.  It becomes a fine line to walk…straddling that space in between making the kind of music you wanna make, and making it in a way that people are going to turn it up loud and proud.  “Kimberly Kankowski” seems to heavily tip towards being a track that’s too demanding on our ears for the wrong reasons…it doesn’t have a whole lot of memorable stuff goin’ on, aside from the main hook of the title itself.  Even where Blind Uncle Harry makes a few significant strides with his lyrics, he gets caught up in the moment, and always chooses to dirty up the sound or get wild with his delivery – and it just feels like he’s trying harder to turn a victory into a defeat than he should be.  Because he’s got some seriously rad and badass things to say…I think he’s absolutely capable of saying things in ways that others can’t as well…but he needs to come down from climbing up the walls all the time, and find a way to meet us in the middle somehow.  I wish I had a quick fix to recommend to the guy, but I don’t.  I truly don’t know what the answer is other than a complete and total overhaul, or maybe a fresh start.

All I know is I want more outta Blind Uncle Harry than what I’ve been getting overall, and I don’t feel like I could possibly be alone in feeling that way.  He sounds hurried and rushed on “Kimberly Kankowski,” or like he’s basically making the whole thing up in real-time…I dunno.  I’d fully agree that a sound too polished sound wouldn’t suit this dude either, but there’s really gotta be some middle ground in there that he can find that meets his needs for artistic expression with what the people can hang with.  Right now, I’d say he’s got an amusing single on his hands with “Kimberly Kankowski,” for both good and bad reasons, but overall, it feels like Blind Uncle Harry needs to buckle down and find ways to bring out his best.  Knowing what little I know about him as a person behind the music, I have nothing but the utmost respect for the guy, but I never really know what to make of this dude’s tunes if I’m being completely honest with ya, and that remains to be true here today.  As always, you get to be the real judge & jury in the court of public opinion, so check it out for yourself below, and see what you think!

Find out more about Blind Uncle Harry from his official website at:  https://blinduncleharry.com

THIS LINE OF TEXT IS INVISIBLE TO THE NAKED EYE, as proven daily by thousands of people that read our pages.  If you’re one of the rare folks that can actually see this message, and you’re curious about how to get YOUR MUSIC featured on our site, by all means click here to learn more about doing exactly that!