Jeff Napolitano, aka Smelter, somehow always manages to stretch further, lyrically, in a one-man song than anyone else--which makes his music really hard to encapsulate in words. He travels across vast realms of literature, history, geography, religion and nature, combing them for touching stories of human lives, which he then delivers in economically crafted folk-pop story-songs. Stop Callin' me! is the universal story of people who are at their wits' ends. These are stories of death, despair, pain, loneliness and longing. His singing style is that of concentrated intensity, he's foreceful without being over-dramatic. Check out, for example, in the song "Got me inside," the matter-of-fact way he sings the lines, "what's my name/what's my name/tell me/what's my name," and the chilling effect they have on you as a listener. Notice, also, the moments of quiet understanding and gentle affection that Napolitano weaves into these tales of desperate people and their haggard lives. Stop callin' me is, for me, the most affecting Smelter album yet, within a discography filled with stirring musical panoramas of heartbreak and humanity.

Martin Gorman

[the hudson way gazette, 07-01-2008]