Cosmik Debris, September 11, 2002

Good dogs, hard times and women good and not-so-good provide the fodder for a dozen tracks from the pen of singer/songwriter Jack McTamney. The product of a working class upbringing in Philadelphia, he's got a rare ability to communicate commonplace concerns in poetic language, never dumbing his material down, but never making the listener feel too dumb to understand it.
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Americana UK, August 2002

Self released debut solo album from Philadelphia singer and songwriter. Amassing 'hundreds' of songs over the years, playing in various bands, the 12 he picks for his first album demonstrate his versatility. The jangling guitars of "Jeanette" sit comfortably alongside "Inches"' rocking blues and he shows a neat line in Beatlesque pop too on "February's Child". They say you can't please all the people all the time but he gives it a hell of a go....
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Alt Country NL, September 2002
(Translation)

Jack McTamney is a singer-songwriter from Philadelphia who delivers his debut-cd with Halfway to Nowhere. The record has been out for some time now, but because of being very busy (too much music around here, moving into a new place) he escaped my attention. Today the cd was in my disc player again while i was driving to Maaastricht and back home to Panningen. My first impression was correct. McTamney displays a wide range of songwriting: typical singer-songwriter stuff, but also roots rock and rock with a pop influence. When folk comes through he's at his best, as we can hear on the powerful irish folktune Hell, then again on the accordion-driven tune Mr. Ford and the beautiful song about his dog Duke (Boy and his Dog). On the folk material his voice sounds better than on the rock songs for which his voice is a bit thin. McTamney also plays the guitar very well, as we can hear on the bluesy tune Inches, the melody rich song Utah and the southern rock touch of The Narrow Lane and Streets Of Gold. He gathers steam slowly, but all along the trip you will enjoy this cd more and more.
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