Christian Kiefer & Sharon Kraus "The Black Dove" (2006)

It seems like the phrases "indie folk" or "alternative folk" are thrown about quite often in the last few years.  "The Black Dove" is a great example of what (I think) those people are talking about.  It's a concept record.  At its core there are beds of ambient sound & deconstructed folk songs.  From this bed, traditional material emerges.  Kiefer seems to be responsible for the more modern sounds, while Kraus handles the traditional.  Despite its conceptual underpinings, it seems to be quite uneven to my ears.  Kraus' traditional material works, but I'm not so sure about the rest.

Ramblin Jack Elliott "A Stranger Here" (2009)

Was the 60s folk scare the squarest time in pop music?  It was certainly in the running.... It's interesting to me how eventually even performers tainted with that association can eventually be repackaged as the Other, & thus eventually "cooled".

In light of that, it's interesting that the album cover doesn't actually show Elliott's face.  Why is that?  Was there the fear that he would look too much like (the buyer's) grandfather?

This late career effort sees Ramblin Jack's voice in decline.  It's thin now, the voice of an old man.  But this is still a very nice set of primarily blues covers.  There's quite a bit of diversity in the arrangements, which makes for a good listen.

Two Man Gentlemen Band "Heavy Petting" (2007)

I have a certain guilty weakness for wacky double entendre songs... so I like this quite a bit.  The hokum material forms the backbone of this album, with a few other jazz age songs thrown in for good measure.

Rainy Day "Rainy Day" (1984)

Back when I was in college in the 80s, it was dicey to buy contemporary releases.  There was no easy source of reviews on most things, distribution was odd, so even if you heard of something you wanted you may not have been able to find it.  Very often "new" purchases would be a crapshoot based on album cover information or something similar.  Since we all had very limited funds for purchasing music, we often ended up buying old $1 vinyl.  It was usually from the 60s or early 70s. 

One of the revelations of discovering the "Paisley Underground" bands was the sense that they had that same sort of record collections.  That mixed in with their Clash, Ramones, et al, were the Byrds, Neil Young, and other 60s bands that did not receive much love in the 80s.

The forgotten psychedelic records from the past were just as oppositional to Reagan era society as the Clash or the Sex Pistols. 

When I listen to this record I'm a bit surprised at how good it still sounds.  Sure, some of the vocals are a bit dodgy, but there's none of the annoying 80s sounds that you might expect.  It's a real tragedy that this is a forgotten record.

Rosie Thomas "These Friends of Mine" (2007)

This is an underapreciated indie folk gem.  A quiet, intimate album of songs about friendship & love.  Sufjan Stevens sits in on several tracks, & seemingly was contributed to the arrangement of some others.  Quite charming.

The Gaslight Anthem "American Slang" (2010)

This is in most ways more of the same -- Springsteen filtered through Social Distortion.  The songs that speak to me are the ones that seem to have the most Clash influence, slightly funky or reggae derived basslines underpinning their spines.

Bruce Springsteen "Working On A Dream" (2009)

This raises an odd question for me:  how can one song be so great, while the rest of the album is terrible?  "The Wrestler" has to be one of the best Springsteen songs of the last 25 years.  An intimate look at someone down on their luck.  But the rest of this record is only marginally listenable.  How does that happen?  Clearly he's talented, & has the ability to release top notch material.  Is there no quality control?  Is the impetus for yet another release so great that he'd rather release dreck than to hold to higher quality standards?