listening now....
his tempo is great
I like
bouncefuck a lot. like the changes at ends of each 4/4 set, sounds like it's gonna drop of of tempo but drops right back in tempo. I think this melody could lend for some nice vocals, and a little more light, upbeat vocals (in contrast to the more sulky style of the others).
today: is the closest thing to a done deal of all. It's also the best sounding. If the reverb is natural (like capturing the room), I'd work from there... remember where everything was placed, levels and all. I think it's kinda priceless to have the kids mostly because the context of the lyrics, but as a goal, I would keep the room as sterile sounding as possible.
Walk with me could use some work. Tell him to try his more natural voice used on "today" with this one. The forced strained voice doesn't sit well. I understand the effort as an attempt to add some maturity to the sound, like an old and weathered singers raspy voice.... but I think that just comes with age (and two packs a day). It's hard to impersonate. His voice is good enough fit for the style naturally like in Today. He should go from there. Walk with me also worth re-recording because of the noise. It sounds like a fan is on and in path of the mic, that or the signal source isn't in good range of the mic so the gain is up to high (for a noisy mic and noisy room). Don't get me wrong, capturing the rooms acoustics and all can be priceless, but you wanna keep it sterile.
Come From is really good too, start to finish, including your harmonies. Again, I just think he should approach the singing like "Today"
he has a very banjo'esque style guitar playing.... mostly due to the fingering, but he might actually like the banjo too and the style is borderline country / folk, so might add a little more character to put banjo under his playing. Probably not the sound he's going for, but just though I'd mention...
I can hear percussion under all the tracks. For the most part, I would start with brushes (instead of sticks) and probably a soft mallet on the kick drum. It would all depend on the target goal of the style. You could have those tracks really driving and rocking with a few steps up in tempo and grabbing an electric guitar, but it's all a matter intended feel.
If you're opened to experimenting w/ different recording techniques... due to the song style, try this.... get the room as quite as possible: place the mic deep in a closet, facing outwards... it's ok if there's clothes in there, actually better if there is lots of clothes hanging. Set the mic in front of the clothes.... he can be in the doorway or in the closet, but facing in. Get the input gain up as high as possible without clipping (and without getting noisy). This way you will get more full sounding recordings, hopefully less noisy and still sound organic enough.
if y'all are looking for encouragement, it goes without saying.... he definitely has all the talent and style needed and NEEDS to keep at it!
I think John Prine is a good reference for him... this recording could give y'all some ideas about a polished recording w/ some added dynamics like the pedal steel, piano and all....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3CiCAxLYXE
(your boy's songs w/ this level of production... WOW!)