Just one? Really? OK, but I'll throw out a couple bonus selections
The new one from the Court & Spark is sounding very good. Titled
Witch Season and sporting one of my favorite album covers of the year to go with the cool, twangy, atmospheric, haunting and moody music. Nice warm analog sound recorded on fat 2" tape in a bunch of real studios. Blue Rodeo fans out there might wanna check it out as it does have that same lush alt-country sound as those Canadian favorites, but maybe just a tad bit more eclectic. Good singer too, kind of like a mix of Richard Buckner and maybe someone like Jerry Garcia, but the star attraction is really the instrumental interplay from what is billed in the liner notes as the Witch Season Players, a group of 20 musicians used to augment the 5 core band members. The great opening track is available for download from the Absolutely Kosher site
here, although some of that really nice sound that adds to its charm is lost when compressed to mp3. Definitely one of my favorite Americana type albums of the year. A little on the slow side of the tracks but you definitely won't hear anything as interesting as this on your local country station.
Been playing the new one by a band named Old Canes and the CD is
Early Morning Hymns. It's actually a side-project of the lead guy from the Appleseed Cast, Chris Crisci. But instead of the indie-prog soundscapes that band excels at, this is acoustic folk-rock. And very good folk-rock that comes out sounding a bit more like something from Neutral Milk Hotel's classic
In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, except with the warmer and less abrasive voice of Crisci telling the stories. One of my recent favorites and you can even listen to a stream of the whole album at
http://www.earlymorninghymns.com/. I see they have a nice
review up at
AMG now too. I think the first I heard of it was in the glowing review at
Delusions of Adequacy.
The Honeydogs
10,000 Years continues to be one of my top albums of the year. Really seems like an epic work that should be recognized for years to come, except that it's hardly even recognized now. Too bad. I've tried to do my part and have definitely turned a few people on to it but maybe it's just a case of the right album at the wrong time? I'd recommend it to all music fans since it really doesn't occupy any specific genre. Maybe that's the problem? But that's one of the things that I like so much about it too. It brings to mind Beatles and Wilco and Aimee Mann and Ry Cooder and Harry Nilsson and many other types of music. I've seen a few good ones, but one of the nicest writeups is at
Paste Magazine and they also had a slobberfest over it at
Nude As The News last year, which I think is where I first heard about it.
As always, ymmv and all that.
