@@@ Iron & Wine: Sing Into My Mouth (Black Cricket, 2015). I get Iron & Wine confused with Deer Tick. This is some throwback mid 70’s soft rock/country music. Mr. Wine is joined by Ben Bridwell for this record of covers and they do plenty o’ sweet harmonizing. Some nice pedal steel in this first/title track. The second tune brings on the drums and the piano and there are distinct The Band vibes in the air. Big arena drum rolls and a sweet crunchy organ solo. I’m not sure how much I enjoy Mr. Wine’s voice and as regular readers know I like some muscle along with the sweetness, but hey that’s just me.
@@@ Natalie Myre: Breaking Forward (Self-released, 2015). Some adult alternative/female singer songwriter piano music I got to via a music publicist email. A whole bunch of 1970’s soft rock and introspective lyrics. There’s some nice blues inflected piano and John Mayer style guitar playing in this second tune, Stay in Your Lane. Very lush sounding recording and Myre really sings her material — it’s not exactly my style, but if folks like this style of music she does a good job of it.
@@@ Walters: Hunk Beach (Canvasback, 2015). Some indie guitar pop I got to via a music publicist email. Large amounts of clean guitar, straight rock beats and big summer vocal melodies. Little bits of sadness/melancholy sprinkled in and around the tune.
YTD recordings listened to: 569
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 329
Not good music: 196
Honorable Mentions: 14
Buys: 9
Possibles: Chris McGregor, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Dave Arner Trio, Bill Horist, MAKU Soundsystem, Zomby, Retox, About Group, Jessie Mae Hemphill, Bone Dance, Defeater, Jonwayne, Okkyung Lee, The Ballantynes, Debruit, Slidhr, The Whammies, The Chewers, Alexander Hawkins, Toxic Holocaust, Equal Stones, Comeback Kid, Susie Iberra/Roberto Rodriguez, Lenguas Largas, The Coral, Spacesuits, T.O.M.B., Fofoulah, Lozen, Erase Errata, Mohamed Abozekry, Dawn Richard, Leo Welch, Mastery, Leviathan, Xibalba, Hartley C. White, Weed, Cold Water, Ellen Jewell, Akitsa, Chico Trujillo, Richard Thompson, Evan Caminiti, ILSA
Deep In the Music 