Daytrotter
TinyMixTapes:
Swinson is the co-leader/songwriter, along with Adam Pressley, of the Normal, Illinois indie folk collective that is Ohtis. That the pair call Normal their home could not be more fitting. If This Country Had A Heart... was certainly born from the minds of two young men who recognize they don’t know or care what the hell normal even means. Their sound is irresistibly listenable and catchy. Joined by a throng of guest players, Swinson and Pressley’s musical vision comes to life with jubilant bursts of harmonized background “ohhs and ahhs,” soaring string arrangements, and furiously strummed guitar lines driving the whole thing home. Think Paul Simon putting his spin on late-’70s-era Talking Heads backed by a commune of accomplished hippie musicians and you’re getting close.
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Stereogum
Smile Politely
Link
Riverfront Times:
The scatterbrained, deconstructionist folk-rock created by Ohtis is a study in contrasts. Crisp, serene strings and soothing vocal melodies flank intense layers of instrumentation and harmony, like a more deliberate and less overdriven Neutral Milk Hotel, or Frank Zappa with a little bit longer attention span. The songs on the Normal, Illinois, band's new album, If This Country Had a Heart, That's Where I Was Born, display a rare combination of concise premeditation and occasional madness. "Sugar Babe" — a smart commentary on young men, money and gender roles in today's society — starts with several fluttering acoustic guitar lines and builds into a frenetic blast of noise that through headphones sounds like a maniacal drumline flying past one's head. But it's the delicate breaths of fresh air between the spazz-outs that really make this music work so well.
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Playback STL:
Ohtis is a band for people who like music that engages your imagination in pleasant ways, and demands your attention, in a good way. Sam Swinson is a crooner in the truest since, a warm-voiced focal point in a slow churning, lightly seasoned stew of '50s era pop, '60s era folk and jazz, with a heavy helping of "post-millennial" Indie rock. As I have learned, lots of words yield lots of confusion; if you are the said confused, my apologies. Ohtis was stripped down to a three-piece: 12-string acoustic guitar, electric bass and drums. Adam Pressley, primarily the lead guitarist in the touring version of Ohtis, was filling in for their recently married bass player. As a result, his partnership with Swinson shone through with some of the most dynamic and melodic bass playing and arrangements I've heard in a while. As a co-writer and producer of their latest album, he know just when to chime in with an excellent vocal harmony; the result: bliss akin to Simon & Garfunkel, but for fans of the Shins, They Might Be Giants or the Flaming Lips circa Yoshimi. The recently added drummer, just learned the songs from their one-week-old album If This Country Had a Heart, That's Where I Was Born, but we wouldn't have known had they not told us. Ohtis was tight, a pleasant reflection of how relevant and exciting it can be to hear the music of your lifetime in the hands of a couple of creative souls with tasteful sensibilities.
In what was a clever twist, Undertow management put a show together that really showcased the beauty and power of what a lot of people would call both folk and roots rock. Oddly enough, it seems you have to be an indie band to be free to pursue those genres with any success these days. Ohtis would be the folk end of the rock spectrum (some would call it freak folk) and would be the roots, but ain't it all rock anyways?
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http://www.playbackstl.com/content/view/8060/158/