New Stuff
The latest trip to the mailbox was Woot! time indeed. I got the new CD from Dave Shifflett's Karma Farmers (gotta love that name) "Songs For Aging Cynics" and it's good. His previous project was "Floor Creak" to which I maintain a CDBaby link so that should someone stumble upon it, he or she could buy it. I still regularly listen to "Floor Creak" and I've been remiss in not getting "Songs For Aging Cynics" sooner.
The songs are melodic, have intelligent lyrics and Mr. Shifflet has this incredible ability to find female vocalists who will knock your socks off, launder them, fold them neatly and put them in your sock drawer. The link above goes to a page that has a couple of videos. Listen to "My Beautiful Friend" and tell me you couldn't swim in the cool stream of Jeanine Guidry's voice. Gorgeous. And the mandolin playing is a wonderful silver thread that winds through the songs, some times just playing along and then rising to a sparkling shimmer over the song. If you listen to "The Old Sailor," you'll get all that from the violin and the guitar as well.
Moreover, at Dave's site there are several songs available for streaming and downloading. I encourage downloading as long as it leads to actual support of the artist. I came to my love of Carbon Leaf by downloading a CD's worth of songs (honestly - from Amazon) and listening sufficiently that I knew I had to have the physical media. The Karma Farmers are somewhat country, somewhat bluegrass I guess. It's the kind of music that the neighbors who should have been recording stars gather on the front porch to play and sing. I love this CD. I'd hope you would too. At the very least, give it a try. If you're disappointed, I say the problem is yours. 'Cause the music is that good.