Reviews
“Van Wagner is a prime example of
a quintessential musical foot soldier. ‘Climbing to the Top’ is the
work of an impressively gifted individual who knows the genre that he has
embraced inside and out, backwards and forward and utilizes its simplicity
in a masterful manner…Van Wagner is a superb songsmith / storyteller who
can take foibles such as avarice and injustice to task with delightful
eloquence.”
-April 99, The
Valley Nights Entertainment Magazine, by Paul Farnham
“..... Wagner’s tall and kind of lanky.....
His music has a strong folk and bluegrass influence and he sings about
the coal region, people he's met, and his own life. The notes he
strums out of his guitar are hard and raspy. His melodies are sometimes
gritty like a coal town or trickle like an Appalachian spring....."
- Feb. 25th, 1998, Buzz Magazine, by A. Smeltz.
"Wagner
is one hometown boy who literally sings the praises of Danville and
shares his accomplishments with the town he loves…”
-Sept 24, 98, The Danville News, by Marcy I. Marshall