Music has an uncanny ability to inspire moods. The debut album from Sedona local Daniel Watters conveys a most cheerful atmosphere.

The first song of Daniel Watters Presents: The All Day Dreamer’s LP evokes pictures of sunshine and rainbows, and someone in tie-dye bopping down a beach with soft, white sand. The source of this image is the light instrumentation, complementing the carefree lyrics. This song, titled “Ferdinand,” opens with “I smell the flowers in the shade of the tree/ among the butterflies and all-day dreams / I could go anywhere I please / but there’s no place I’d rather be.”

The only instruments used are a ukulele, played mainly with upstrokes in a laid-back rhythm, and a Rhodes, a keyboard instrument that produces a mellow sound.

A whistle solo in the middle of the song completes the tone. Other songs are less flower-power, such as “Te Amo,” a song mulling over the exact nature of the singer’s relationship with a girl whose thoughts he can never guess. Are they more than friends or not? Spanish plays a cute role in this song, especially since he uses mostly well-known phrases so most listeners will understand. The drums play prominently in “Te Amo,” setting a strong one-two-three-and-four beat throughout the song.

Watters wrote all the songs on this first album, played most of the instruments, and recorded it at home; the vocals were recorded in a studio. It’s cool that this CD is mostly self-made, especially since the CD still sounds professional, despite its non-traditional production.

I would be really interested, however, to hear what Watters could do with a band, because he wouldn’t really be able to perform his songs live unless he got some other people involved. Also, there’s something different about hearing the work of several people combining at one time than hearing a song that was produced piece-meal and electronically, even though this method does show the versatility of Watters’ artistry.

Among the instruments Watters plays on this CD are the Rhodes and uke (as mentioned above) the piano, guitar, tambourine, bass, banjo, trombone and organ -- an impressive list.

The All Day Dreamer’s LP is dedicated “to all the daydreamers who can’t concentrate because they have something better on their minds.” This encapsulates beautifully the general attitude of the album, which ends with a tragicomic, hidden joke-song about Jake, a seriously overweight kid who lives on the street because his calling to be a TV repairman doesn’t work out—he’s not good at fixing things. So he has his dreams to keep him company.
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