m-Log @ musicmedia.net

I’ve found myself on a bit of a Folk kick lately. Joshua Radin. Amos Lee. Jack Johnson. James Blunt. Cary Brothers.

What’s Folk music anyhow? Not necessarily a simple question if you refer to Wikipedia, though if you’ve listened to these artists you’ll know I ascribe to the more modern definition of music consisting predominately of simple acoustic guitar arrangements and vocals. Though I have to admit that my personal folk nirvana is when these talented song writers pick up the pace and expand the songs with a few more instruments. At the end of the day, I’ll always be a rock fan at heart.

Folk artists have long been top on my list. Well at least artists with roots in Folk. Pop-rockers Vertical Horizon (who I used to work for) may be best know for their single “Everything You Want” , ranked by Casey Casem as the top song of 2000, but the group started as an acoustic folk duo with the album There and Back Again. Rockwell Church , another personal favorite, has systematically expanded their sound from album to album, but vocal harmony and acoustic guitar they started with remain at the root of their music.

A few weeks ago I picked up James Blunt’s Back to Bedlam on iTunes . By now most people with a bead on music are familiar with Blunt, a former British army officer who has exploded onto U.S. scene recently following some similar success in the U.K. I first heard Blunt when his track “You’re Beautiful” was released as a free download on iTunes. I find the free tracks hit or miss, but I managed to find at least two artists who have made it all worth it. During months of flirting with buying Back to Bedlam I was noticing it was holding strong in top five albums on iTunes. I finally bit the bullet and downloaded and it has consistantly grown on me over the last few weeks. My current favorite track is “Wisemen” .

My most recent acquisitions were Joshua Radin’s self-released We Were Here and Amos Lee’s self-titled album from Blue Note/EMI.

As I’ve mentioned previously, I found out about Radin from Zach Braff who has been plugging him hard on his blog (Zach Braff’s Garden State Blog) and even gave him a pitch on iTunes. Of couse, Radin’s music has been heavily featured on the last two seasons of Scrubs (”These Photographs” , “Don’t Look Away” , “Closer” , “Today” ). We Were Here is Radin’s full length debut and features remakes of some of his more popular songs “Winter” and “Today” , though unlike many folk artists who find themselves expanding their arrangements and crossing over to rock in their arrangements, Radin has actually scaled back from his earlier EP, First Between 3rd and 4th . To be honest, I personally prefer the EP, but for my aforementioned reasons. We Were here is still a great effort and shows real development of a personal style in addition to great song writing.

Amos Lee, on the other hand, was a Pandora find. Lee’s album has more of blues feel and definitely more produced than Radin, which most arrangements also including light percussion and keys. The highlight of the album is the break-up anthem, “Colors” , which is in the sad and pining vein rather than bitter and pissed off. On the track, Lee swoons in a sweet falsetto over a laidback guitar riff.

If you get the chance I’d highly recommend all three of these artists. They’re mellow gold.

Nate Out.

I’ve been thinking about starting this blog for a while, but I wasn’t sure what I had that was worth writing about. I thought about what I was passionate about and popular music was at the top of the list, so here I am.

Why should you care about what I have to say about music? Well I’m not sure you should, but you’ll need to be the judge for your self. Spend a little time on my MLog. Try one of my recommendations for yourself. If you like it, then try another. If you think it sucks, move on.

As far as my credentials, I’m a musician myself, but certainly not an artist. I wrote music reviews for my high school paper. My column drew more letters to the editor than any feature, much to chagrin to our advisor. Mostly complaints about my biases. I make no promises to review every type of music here. It will all be in the vein of what I like. So chances are you like it or you won’t, but I can only write about what I’m listening too, and for now I’m only listening too what I buy. And I try to only buy what I like.

I have flirted a few times with the music industry. I ran the website for Vertical Horizon for a couple years when they were with RCA Records. This gave me the opportunity to work on sites for several other artists. More on this sometime in the future. I also spent sometime consulting with an independant record label in Utah, Guapo Records, for a bit.

Beyond this, I’ve got about 10,000 songs on my iPod, which I’m sure is not a record (though I don’t have much space left).

So that’s it. Hopefully I haven’t wasted your time. To make sure you don’t leave empty handed, here’s a list of who I’m currently listening to.

• Joe Firstman - The War of Women - I heard Joe on Pandora on my Counting Crows Channel (more on Pandora in the future). Best new artist I’ve heard in a long time, though the albums a few years old. One of the cooler titles too.
• James Blunt - Back to Bedlam - Been dreaming of this album for a while since I got “You’re Beautiful” as a free download from i-Tunes. For a couple months, I’ve been watching it stay pretty consistantly in the top 10 of Today’s Top Albums at i-Tunes. Pretty good album, but hasn’t met my high expectations after months of build up.
• Death Cab for Cutie - “Soul Meets Body“, “Crooked Teeth” - There’s been a lot of buzz about these guys since December. I have preview the album in 30 second clips, but thought it was all hype. Then I heard them perform “Soul Meets Body” on SNL a month ago and found myself singing in my head for days. I still haven’t decided if I’m going to give the whole album a try.
• Michael Tolcher - “Sooner or Later” - Heard this on a recent episode of Scrubs (One of my favorite sources of new music, though more on this in the future). Excellent single. He was part of the line up for the Dave Matthews Band cruise recently. I plan to give some of his other tracks a try soon.
• Colin Hay - Man @ Work - Another Scrubs find. Featured in second season, Colin appeared on the show playing “Overkill”, though eventually Dr. Cox smashed the !@#$ out of his guitar. This mostly acoustic is great and features some newer versions of his songs from Men At Work, including the alltime classic, “Land Down Under”.
• Tom Glynn - Passing Dream - Got this from a co-worker who is the sister-in-law of Tom’s drummer. Thought it was merely pleasant on the first listen, but the album has really grown on me since. Especially the duet on “Feels Like Rain.”

And like that he was gone….

-Nate