It’s the time of year for saving money!
Some of my favorite music and artists have been discovered not by listening to radio…
Not by word of mouth from friends…
Not from the Interwebs… Not from Spotify … Not from Pandora… Not from Apple Music…
No…
Time and time again, I have gotten turned onto music that has stayed with me for life by first hearing it played while shopping in actual “brick and mortar” retail music stores.
Like snapshots in a photo album, I can still remember many of these moments of discovery, times of being turned-on and tuned-into a particular artist….
I was hepped to Marshal Crenshaw and John Otway at Vintage Vinyl Records when they were still located in Irvington, NJ.
I got wow’d by The Smiths and The Cure at a little shop in New York’s Greenwich Village (can’t remember the store name but I know its no longer in existence anyhow).
At the legendary (and now out of business) Village Music in Mill Valley, I was blown away by the music of Solomon Burke and Bettye LaVette (among many others). Village Music’s successor Mill Valley Music has turned me on to the glories of early 70’s Manfred Mann and Germany progressive rock band, ELOY. Amoeba Records gets credit for turning me on to Built to Spill. A long time staffer at the once great (and now defunct) Streetlight Records turned me on to Sweden’s Dungen.
And it was at Grooves Records here in San Francisco that recently turned me onto some music I’d never heard, a collaboration by Marty Willson-Piper (guitarist from Australia’s The Church) and Niko Rohlcke (of Sweden’s Weeping WIllows) called Moat, which was released in 2013.
Why did did the eponymously titled Moat jump out on me?
Well, because of its understated beauty… and lovely songwriting… and rich, near-ambient production style … and chiming 12-string guitars… and violin … and moody keyboard flourishes…
Moat is music for a bluesy Sunday…
Marty Willson-Piper’s voice is really emotive, falling somewhere between Bob Geldof, John Sebastian, Donovan, and David Bowie.
And for all its acoustic, slow-burn brilliance, it is the final cut, “Lovestar,” that really knocks me out, a full band piece, an epic slice of modern psychedelia that sounds like a cross between George Harrison and David Gilmour of Pink Floyd fame.
This is the kind of album that makes me want to go back and dig down deeper into an artist’s catalog. If he can make a record like this in 2013, perhaps I will like his work with The Church and his various solo stuff.
It just takes one great moment like this to convince me.
Maybe you might like it as well…
