PICKS: Music

Damien Rice – “O”: This wonderful CD is filled with great lyrics, sounds, textures, and emotions. Acoustic guitar, cello, violin, folk-style vocals and harmonies and even some operatic touches. The songs are more paintings than stories. They invite you in, and you want to stay with them. This CD has been in my car for weeks. It was on when I had the sad task of taking our family dog, Shady – who was very sick with cancer – to be put down. The CD brings back those emotions every time I hear it, but I love to listen to it. Great, unique music.

Eastmountainsouth: I heard a snippet of this CD on the NPR station, WXPN. I knew I had to hear the whole thing. Mountain music with contemporary production and instrumentation. It tells stories of family, love, heart, and soul. The harmonies have the brother-sister familial quality. Jane and I kept stealing the CD from each other. It is now on my iPod so I can take it wherever I go.

The Jayhawks- Rainy Day Music is just one of those amazing records. Every songs is a lyrical gem; the music and production are as well. Since I acquired this CD, it has rarely left the rotation in my house, in my car and/or on my iPod. The guitars are just where they are supposed to be. The influence of the Beatles, the Burritos, and the Byrds is omnipresent. Great band, great songs, great lyrics, great harmonies, great record.

Robert Burke Warren - Lazyeye
Robert, in this second recording,continues with a great roots-rock feeling, and then some. The songs are real, lyrically rich, with great tunes and musicianship. I have found these songs have begun to imbed themselves in my brain; I wake up with the hooks running in my head - a different song each morning. The song themes are great as well, grit here, mature relationship there, and all with wonderful imagery. I can smell the Junkman, understand the need to move from a "old friend" for the needs of child, appreciate the gift of your one love. I also hear pieces of many producers and writers that I love sprinkled in- John Jennings, Rodney Crowell, Lou Reed, Gary Louris - but they are only suggested; the album is unmistakably RBW. Great performance in Icarus by Rosanne Cash and John Leventhal.

Rosanne Cash - Rules of Travel
This is a truly wonderful album. The songs, the lyrical content, the music and the joining of both, are impecable and so satisfying. The songs written by others (Craig Northey, Jakob Dylan & Joe Henry, John Leventhal & Marc Cohn) certainly fit; of course, Rosanne makes them totally her own. The production and instrumentation is exquisite - John Leventhal never ceases to amaze me as a musician, producer and co-writer. Roseanne's songs have a power derived from their seeming simplicity, a function of her great writing ability and style. The record, of course, is highlighted, a touching duet her late father, the great Johnny Cash. This album is one I come back to time and again for inspriation, enjoyment, and outright awe.