New Music

September has been an unusually rich month for new music, and here are some highlights for me:

• Blake Mills |   Heigh Ho. The live show last Thursday  at El Rey was among the best I have ever seen. Unbelievable instrumentation and direct songs. Hoping to get the vinyl  soon.

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• Ryan Adams |   Ryan Adams. After listening the first time through on NPR, I knew this record would be in my top 3 for all of 2014. I only buy vinyls of records I already love, and I bought the vinyl the day it came out.
• Delta Spirit |   Into the Wide. I've loved keeping up with these guys since the Noise Ratchet days, but this record shows their maturation in the best way.
• Lecrae |   Anomaly. A huge congrats to him on charting #1 on Billboard!
• Alt-J |   This Is All Yours. I have only given this a quick listen, but so far I like what I hear.
• The Tree Ring |   Ten Rivers. Going to a farewell show for one of your favorite bands is never fun, but The Tree Ring has continued to give their community great songs. (See photo below)
• Robbie Seay |   Psalms, Volume 3 - EP. Robbie is an amazing songwriter and so consistent.

Then came some surprises with new singles from Damien Rice and Ben Howard.

And in a historical and controversial move, this other small band made their record available for free.

And with that, I deem this a rich musical month.

For anyone interested,   I made a September playlist  comprised of some of my favorite songs from all of the aforementioned records on Spotify. Enjoy.

Photo of The Tree Ring from their farewell show by Phillip Harder.