Hey IM Radio. Toke here. Glad to become a part of your neighborhood. Right now I'm hard at work on my new record in Chris Stamey's studio down here in Chapel Hill and playing gigs around the triangle as I get prepared for a fall tour of Europe. Keep spinning my stuff. Peace, Toke

ROCK N REEL MAGAZINE A singer song-writer of variety and erudition, Tokyo Rosenthal allies himself here with the incomparable Chris Stamey. If you need a little bit of production assistance Stamey really is your man. His recent credits include Chatham County Line, and he had a large hand in Alejandro Escovedo�s A Man Under The Influence. Here his role is �additional production� alongside Rosenthal, and between them they�ve contrived a natural , easy sound allowing space for all the nuances. Rosenthal�s voice has subtleties and a pleasing tremor, rewarding to the listener when coaxed out. A mixture of styles is in evidence - one or two perhaps surplus to requirements- and there are Celtic undertones manifesting themselves. This is clear from the opening �St Patricks Day�, a stirring rocker from that place in the Tom Petty playbook where twang meets jangle, and then in the lovely violin of the plaintive �We Planted Seeds�. Later, bagpipes will feature on � If I Could Draw My Heart�. �Who�s To Say What Might Have Been� tantalizes, for at a slightly different tempo it might well be a great southern soul ballad, and steel maestro Al Perkins graces two songs, of which �Goodnight Carrie I�m Coming Home� may be the record�s highlight. Nick West

Reviews Artist:Tokyo Rosenthal Album:Love Won Out Tracks:10 Label:Rock & Sock Records Website: www.myspace.com/tokyorosenthal Blessed with a voice of extraordinary versatility, coupled with the ability to convey very deep emotions. Tokyo Rosenthal appears to be a leading contender for the titles': Storyteller of depth and detail, purveyor of expanding sound and One with one of the freshest voices on the alternative Americana scene today. We Planted Seeds-track 2- is a deeply affecting and seemingly personal reflection. Augmented by clambering, hungry acoustic guitar, soaring, melodic and joyful violin/fiddle and complemented perfectly by atmospheric and meditative tambourine. Tokyo's vocal delivers a melody that rises, falls and weaves the song together beautifully. His driving vibrato sets the whole thing alight with twinkling clarity and a measure of controlled ferocity that is utterly captivating. Track 6- If I Could Draw My Heart is a gentle giant. A haunting masterpiece bearing Tokyo's unmistakable Anglo- Celtic musical vision. This song will stir your repressed emotions and melt away your cares in the most tentative and unobtrusive way possible. Other songs here explore and incorporate, Coffee House Jazz, Blues, Country,traditional Bluegrass sensibilities and retrospective Rock in such an uncompromising, masterful and distinctive way that it would be unimaginative not to expect good things to come from this intriguing and talented artist. Final song- Goodnight Carrie I'm Coming Home is a buoyant classic Rock number that is bathed in blue wash, dreamy cloudscapes and haunting lyric. This is ideal synchronization material and if the record label are aware of this, they will no doubt be knocking on the doors of programming executives everywhere at this very moment. Jim Sutherland 2009

MUSIC STEET JOURNAL Tokyo Rosenthal Love Won Out Review by Gary Hill This is a great disc, plain and simple. Tokyo Rosenthal creates a blend of sounds that stay close to the singer/songwriter style of musical vision. At the same time he incorporates enough varying styles to keep it from getting monolithic or boring at all. While there are aspects of this song or that I�m not totally enamored by, there isn�t a single track here I�d consider weak. This is just one of those discs that reaches out and grabs you with no intention of letting go. Track by Track Review St. Patrick�s Day There�s a great fuzzy guitar sound that leads this off. The cut takes on a Roy Orbisson sort of element as it drops back for the vocals. The arrangement takes on more layers bringing in more lush textures as it continues. This is a great pop rock song with a lot of retro stylings in the mix. There�s a suitably Celtic tint to some of the guitar lines that weave amidst the later parts of the track and it drops way back to mellower ballad territory for a time before moving back upward. We Planted Seeds Celtic music meets folk balladry here. There�s a warbling sound to the vocals that kind of turns me away here, but at its best this reminds me of Gordon Lightfoot. This is much more sedate and organic than the discs opener and has a lot of traditional Celtic (classically tinged) textures. Little Poetry Girl As strong as the last couple cuts were, this one is even better. It�s got a more stripped down texture than the opener and yet it rocks out more than the last one. There�s a bit of a jazz trio feeling to a lot of this, but I also hear plenty of Van Morrison and Roy Orbisson in the mix. That�s an intriguing combination and we even get a little Latin edge. There�s also a killer jazz meets rockabilly guitar solo. I like this a lot. Who's to Say What Might Have Been? Here we get a slow moving (but still rather rock oriented) number that shows off many of the same influences we�ve heard before. This doesn�t differ dramatically from some of the other music, but is a unique piece nonetheless. It�s quite a dramatic and powerful one and I�d consider it a highlight of the disc. I Care If You Do We�re off to the hoedown with this bouncy little folky number. It�s very country western � yeah, both types of music � in its arrangement and delivery. It�s fun and a nice change of pace. We get a fiddle solo on this. If I Could Draw My Heart Another folky ballad, this feels to me like a cross between Johnny Cash and Gordon Lightfoot. Still, I also get a bit of a Moody Blues vibe. The arrangement is quite lush and powerful. Love Won Out Here we get a smoking blues treatment. At times this reminds me of Led Zeppelin, but at other points it�s much more �real blues.� A Word for You As keyboards start this (not with real melody but more as effects) it feels as if it might launch out into a psychedelic romp. Instead we get a growing folky number. This is energetic and another great tune. Random Noises This is another with a bluesy element to it. Yet the instrumentation floating around the outskirts brings a prog rock meets psychedelic jazz texture. I�d peg this as another highlight of the disc. Goodnight Carrie, I'm Coming Home This slow ballad is pretty and potent. I�m just not sure that it�s a strong enough cut to warrant the closing spot. From a lyrical point of view it�s a perfect choice. There�s enough emotion here to elevate this, but it seems that a more uptempo number would have made the listener more likely to be wanting more at the end.

JUKEBOX ROUND-UP Tokyo Rosenthal, an obsessed and exceptionally gifted composer and lyricist is unique in the Americana scene, not only because of his unusual name. His career started in Country Rock. But the former boxer, promoter and frontman of the group Harpo and Slapshot , he has widened his musical spectrum on the way that has lead him from Rhode Island through the cultural melting pots of New York and L.A. into the rather quiet of Chapel Hill, NC. On his latest album Love Won Out he combines Country, Roots, Blues, Folk and Jazz. A thrilling mix that gets even more variety through carefully dosed hints of Rock'n'Roll and Latin-Flair. He is an awesome narrator and procurer of stories and history. His voice and arrangements awaken a world that is both his and the listener's in the 10 songs he has written. You should listen to these exquisite, smoothed lyrics very carefully. This is premium "art-of- song". To Tokyo Rosenthal it is about the substance of his stories. They touch, create friction and don't loose themselves in cliches. Like made to contemplate and to "travel-on-the-sofa": silent, amazed, happily sad, richer. Friends of soft ballads will be very well served with Love Won Out as well as those, who like it a little less sentimental once in a while. The album opener "St. Patrick's Day" has to be mentioned, which sticks out through its epic energy and the fleet footed, elated "I Care If You Do". In Appalachian feeling, a special joy, which will also be loved by lovers of hand-made country music. One of the favourites of the album that was produced by Rosenthal and Indie-legend Chris Stamey is surely the title song. It is just ingenius how Brent Lambert refined the song with his slide guitar and to draw the attention of the listener. The singer, songwriter and multi instrumentalist (guitar, piano, mandolin, drums) manages to develop the traditional Americana sound his way and at the same time to take his hat off to it. This is exactly what makes Tokyo Rosenthal an exceptional talent. No wonder American and European music magazines shower him with praise. The man loves and lives the music he makes. You can feel this in every tone - and that lets him stand shoulder to shoulder with the great ones of the genre.