Now that Mojo Nixon has made XM-12 completely unlistenable, I’ve been spending more time on some other XM stations while I wait for the glorious day that Pandora comes to my truck’s audio system. Doing so has led me to some great music discoveries.
My latest is Sharon Van Etten. The song that first blew me away is Save Yourself, from her new record Epic (Purchase @ Amazon). Whatever my musical genome is, this song fits it perfectly. It’s like a delightful combination of vintage Lucinda, Hockey Skates and Mazzy Star, with a beautiful alt. country arrangement.
Four of the other six songs on Epic are equally as strong. A Crime is not as country-ish, but it has a strong acoustic guitar track behind some good lyrics. Very Kathleen Edwards (which is high praise in these parts). Don’t Do It is probably my favorite song on the record. It has that perfectly wistful Gulf Shores vibe. I’d love to hear some duets between Sharon and Bonnie Prince Billy. One Day is also excellent and would be right at home on a good Ryan Adams record. Love More is a fine end (hampered only by a distracting accordianish track) to a short, but very good, record.
I just read that Sharon played here in Houston last month. Sorry I missed that. I’ll be there next time.
Good stuff. Highly recommended.
Artist Notice: I am a musician and songwriter. I do these posts to draw attention to great music in the hopes that our readers will buy these records and allow these artists to continue making great music. If you don’t want us to feature your music, let us know and we’ll take the song file down immediately. On the other hand, if you are an artist who does the sort of music we feature, let us know. We’re always looking for new artists to feature.
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