David Ullman

Singer-songwriter David Ullman made an auspicious debut in 2008 with Dog Days, a beautiful album of acoustic ballads that featured his distinctive voice. Ullman, who lived in Northeast Ohio at the time, has recently moved to the far north (he now calls Minneapolis home) but still plans to revisit Cleveland regularly. He’s steadily grown as an artist since releasing his debut, and his new album, Light of Dark, has more grit to it. That much is apparent right from the notes of the opening tune, “Who You Say,” a song the showcases his gruff, Springsteen-like vocals. “My first album came from getting married young and divorced soon after, but this one has a more mature concerns,” says Ullman. “It’s not about breakups but the traumatic process of trying to find your place in the world and wrestling with questions about where you’re going. It’s more introspective as a result, and I told my producer that I wanted it to sound tough. I was trying to capture the energy of my live performances, so there was more performing rather than recording piecemeal. Half the record has cello, which I always wanted. Though we’ll play unplugged, most of the people who played on the record will play, and I’ll have a cellist from the Akron Symphony Orchestra at the Cleveland show.” (Jeff Niesel)