Robert Cherry

Skinny Mirrors At A Glance

The debut EP from Skinny Mirrors is a compelling paradox—a collection of sugar-in-the-raw pop songs, short in the making yet long in the finishing.

The group, a collaboration between singer-songwriter Robert Cherry and producer/multi-instrumentalist Craig Ramsey, took shape one winter in the basement studio Ramsey had set up in Cherry’s Mid-Century modern ranch home, mere blocks from a slate-and-olive Lake Erie, then ringed with wave-shattered sheets of dirty ice.

The acoustic warmth and hopeful sentiment of Tear-Stained Teen Age stands in stark contrast to that wind-blasted lakescape, owing more to the pursuit of the perfect pop song and the limitations imposed by ungrounded electrical outlets.

Cherry and Ramsey finished tracking the songs over the course of an inspired weekend, with a little help from Cherry’s wife, Carla, on backing vocals, and friends Bill Broun and John Curley on synth and bass, respectively. While excited with the results, they back-burnered the project to pursue other groups (Plastic Ants and Hot Coma for Cherry, and a solo debut and Bears album for Ramsey).

The songs kept calling, though, and the files eventually made their way to Adam Boose, the big ears at Cauliflower Audio, who mixed and mastered the tracks, preserving the spontaneity of the recordings while adding a flattering matte finish.

The cover art by painter Cherlyn Varga Toth perfectly captures the mood within—tough yet tender, timely yet timeless.