Blue Merle

Another artist to highlight: Blue Merle. I found these guys through radio play, with their single Burning In The Sun, which is simply a great song. Great sound to it, lyrics are great, and for me, highly relatable for me, regarding love and breakup. Their album has a number of other great songs, including Boxcar Racer, Lucky to Know You, Every Ship Must Sail Away and Places being my favorites. The others are all equally as good, and I think that these guys are just about up there with Low Millions, Amos Lee and Carbon Leaf.

If you like Coldplay, you'll like their stuff. Their lead singer, Luke Reynolds, (Who's also from Vermont) has a very similar sound to that of the British Band, but their music sounds a bit more diverse with a Fiddle and Mandolin. Mandolins seem to be popping up more, and they do add a cool sound to the music, especially here.
Track listing:

1- Burning in the Sun
2- If I Could
3- Lucky to Know You
4-Stay
5- Every Ship Must Sail Away
6- Boxcar Racer
7- Made to Run
8- Seeing Through You
9- Places
10- Part of Your History
11- Either Way It Goes
12- Bittersweet Memory

Their official Website is : http://www.bluemerle.com/main.html. Again, highly recommended.

Selected Artist: Carbon Leaf

Okay, I'm dispensing with the Of the Month, and I'll end up doing this more frequently, and when I actually remember to do it.
Carbon Leaf. My favorite band, still fairly new and upcoming, despite the fact that they've released 6 albums, one signed on with a major recording studio. They're from Virginia, and have toured the country a couple times - and have come to Vermont on a number of occasions. I've seen them twice, and they are very good in concert.
Personally, I've felt that their last two albums are the best, and I'll focus more on those, because I have all the tracks and enjoy them more.

Albums:

5 Alive!


Echo Echo

Ether-Electrified Porch Music

Indian Summer

Meander

Shadows in the Banquet Hall

Their music style is a nice blend of rock, folk and Irish (More with Echo Echo & not as much with Indian Summer). Lyrically, they're very creative, with some outstanding songs. Indian Summer is one of the few albums where I can listen to every song, and relate to almost all of them somehow. Life Less Ordinary is the most listened to track on my computer, and the most relatable. However, Changeless, One Prarie Outpost, This Is My Song, Paloma and What About Everything? are likewise as good.

Artist of the Month: Amos Lee

Let's see if my memory will allow me to continue with this on a monthly or semi-regular basis: I'd like to highlight various artists that I enjoy listening to, ones that fewer people have heard about, or know little about. So, this month, I'm going to recommend a new artist named Amos Lee. Lee has just released his first self titled Album, which has resulted in some good sucesses thus far.

He grew up in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and attended the University of South Carolina, where he became interested in music while he studied history. After he graduated, he returned to Philidelphia and taught elementary school. After a while, he left to pursue a career in music, releasing a self produced EP that did fairly well in the area. The real break came when grammy winner Norah Jones heard his music and asked him to open for her 2004 tour of America. Between 2004 and 2005, he recorded his debut album, which features Jones on two songs- Colors and Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight. Since that first tour, he has opened for two more musicians, Merle Haggard and Bob Dylan, which went over very well. One of his songs, Arms of A Woman, has been filmed as a music video, which can be seen on Yahoo's Launch. His official Website is http://www.amoslee.com , which has some information about his CD, song lyrics, band and tour details.

Discography:

Amos Lee

1- Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight
2- Seen It All Before
3- Arms of A Woman
4- Give It Up
5- Dreamin'
6- Soul Suckers
7- Colors
8- Bottom of the Barrel
9- Black River
10- Love In The Lies
11- All My Friends

Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight EP
1- Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight
2- Jails And Bombs
3- Speed of the Sound of Lonliness

My Thoughts:
I first heard Amos Lee's song, Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight, on 104.7, the Point, the only good radio station in the area, mainly because they play a lot of music like this: new and upcoming, good stuff. It's a very catchy song, with a laidback beat, good vocals and lyrics. I try to keep paper on my at most times, and for once, I remembered the name of the artist enough to look into him on the internet. Later that night, I bought the song on iTunes, and it's quickly shot up onto my top 50 most played list. Later, when I was in Best Buy last week, I found a copy of his debut album for around $10. It's since proved to be a great album, with a number of great songs on it. Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight, Love In The Lies, Black River, All My Friends and Give It Up are my personal favorites on the album, but the entire thing as a whole is extremely listenable. A number of people have compared him to the male Norah Jones, and there are some similarities, not just from her role producing and appearing on a couple songs. Lee's music is a wonderful fusion of Jazz, Folk and Blues, coupled with a great hand at writing and singing. The songs are both simple, but have some weight to them. He just played up here in Vermont, at the Higher Ground, something that I'm still kicking myself for missing. I'm really hoping that he's going to return here, with a new CD. He's got a very promising future, and hopefully his future stuff will be up to the same level that his first album is at.