Graig Markel creates attractive if deliberately unexciting music on his solo release Via Novella. At tempos ranging from slow to slower, the tracks begin with a deliberately strummed acoustic guitar, augmented by more stringed instruments, including overdubbed electric guitar, cello, and lap steel guitar, all played by Markel, before he begins to sing in a heavily processed, becalmed voice, repeating reflective, poetic lyrics. This is music in the style of English eccentrics like Syd Barrett and Nick Drake, coming from a Seattle musician, but no less appealing for that. ~ William Ruhlmann