The Music Part 2

Howdy all... I hope everyone is doing well. Let's see, what's exciting here? I have a couple days off from work right now just to relax before starting up school on Monday. Yesterday I took little Keith to Barnes and Noble... we played with their "choo choo train", Keith found a riveting book about tractors, and I got Nicholas Nickelby by Charles Dickens for 50% off. Doesn't get much more exciting than that. Today I went hiking, in the rain... yeah, not such a good idea. I got really wet. And then I went and spent a week's worth of pay on textbooks. And now I am typing to you fine people. And let me tell you, I am very excited about our topic today. I've got some music updates for you... some new artists, some not so new artists, some music news. So let's get into it.

First up on the list today is a band I've mentioned before and that, for the moment, has lodged itself in a very close second position behind my favorite band. This really amazing band is none other than Switchfoot. I bought their album The Beautiful Letdown and really enjoyed it. Then I bought Nothing is Sound and all I can say is wow. What a great album. Musically, it's very similar to The Beautiful Letdown, but it is definitely a step up lyrically and emotionally. The thing that really gets me about this album is its honesty. That raw, frank honesty is the thing that makes the beautiful music and the beautiful lyrics even more poignant. This album is about everything from the deeply personal to the nature of our entire generation, but the whole thing just talks about real life, real problems, real emotions, and a very real hope. Lead singer and songwriter Jon Foreman describes the album like this: "Maybe that's what this record hopes to be: a simple bitter pill of truth that steps outside of our hamster wheel and looks up at the stars and beyond." It's not always a cheerful album, but it's just great. Absolutely one of my favorites. Go listen to some of the songs from the album (for free!) on purevolume.

Ok, up next is an up and coming solo artist named Brent Cashell. He doesn't quite have an album put together yet, and the music's production quality is sometimes rough, but the positive side is that you can download his songs for free on his MySpace page (yes, I oppose MySpace, but I'll make an exception this once). His songs are very simple, pretty much just him with a piano or guitar, but he has a great voice, catchy tunes, and stirring lyrics. I particularly recommend the songs "Better Me" and "Wrap Me In Your Love". I'll let you know if he puts out an album or puts new songs up or anything.

Next up is a very different type of music from Hawaiian artist John Keawe. John Keawe writes and plays a type of guitar called slack key guitar. If you like listening to acoustic guitars as much as I do, or if you like mellow acoustic music, you will like this. I don't actually have any of John Keawe's albums, but his music is featured pretty often on the HawaiiUp podcast. From what I've heard and read, I recommend his album called Keaweualani. Unfortunately, he only has a couple songs available to download on iTunes, and the albums are pretty expensive, but if this is a problem, just listen to past episodes (especially episode #35) of HawaiiUp and you can hear him.

Last but certainly not least is the ever-changing but consistently great band that is Jars of Clay. First of all, I recently purchased their latest album Redemption Songs. This is not my favorite Jars album, but it is very very good if you are a fan of hymns. This is the band's most overtly Christian album, in which they have "reworked" old hymns. Basically they took the words and basic tunes of these hymns and gave the music a modern, slightly rockish twist. I guess I should say if you don't like hymns, you won't like this album. I would actually more highly recommend the EP they released after this album, entitled Roots and Wings, which I haven't been able to find anywhere except on iTunes. It has only 4 songs, 1 one which is found on Redemption Songs, but they are all good songs, so check it out. And now, I have some super-exciting Jars of Clay news. They just recently released another EP entitled Mini Monsters, which is also almost exclusively available on iTunes. It only has three tracks, but I highly recommend that you download "Love Me" - it's a very good song. Ok, but now for the real news. Jars of Clay new album, Good Monsters, will be released in only 11 days, on September 5. I've listenened to previews of it, and I can tell you for certain that this is going to be yet another excellent album from this excellent band. So go check it out - you can pre-order it on Amazon.com or christianbook.com or on iTunes (starting on Aug. 28). Do it! Preorder your copy! Fall in love with Jars of Clay - it's so worth it.

Ok, enough shameless advertising. I swear, these bands should start paying me. Or give me free music. I have found quite a few new artists lately whose albums I really want to buy, but I am broke for the next couple weeks due to all the money I'm spending on Lost DVDs and guitar lessons. Maybe you love my music reviews so much that you want to send me an iTunes gift card, so I can get a new one out sooner. Maybe not. ;) Alrighty, folks, I have to go away now. Have a great day!

Ever yours,
Jill