Coming Soon to an Ear Near You

Upcoming releases I am anticipating:

March 3: U2 - No Line on the Horizon
April 7: Phillip LaRue - Let the Road Pave Itself
May 19: Mat Kearney - City of Black and White

Words and Music

I am thrilled to be able to combine two of my great loves tomorrow -- music and literature/writing. I will be attending a roundtable discussion featuring Mary Gauthier, Minton Sparks, Linford Detweiler and Karin Berquist of Over the Rhine (pictured above), and Julie Lee. The musicians will discuss "Shadows of the Word: Songwriters and Literary Legacies of Religion and Place." The gathering concludes a series hosted by Nashville's Vanderbilt University focusing on the late author Flannery O'Connor.

John and Jon Harmonize Rather Than Fray

I heard about the band years ago, but our paths didn't cross until The Fray's self-titled sophomore release dropped this month -- at which point I purchased both the debut and the follow-up record. Just wanted to quickly note that vocalist/pianist Isaac Slade's vocals sounds like a cross between those of Jon Foreman and John Mayer. Such little discoveries excite me.

Grammy Love 2009

Congratulations to some of my favorite artists on their recent Grammy awards! You'll notice that some of them coincide with my favorite picks of 2008...

New Artist: Adele (pictured above)

Rock Album: Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends - Coldplay

Song of the Year: Viva La Vida - Coldplay

R&B Album: Jennifer Hudson - Jennifer Hudson

Female Pop Vocal Performance: Chasing Pavements - Adele

Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals: Viva La Vida - Coldplay

Rock or Rap Gospel Album: Alive and Transported - tobyMac

My Two Cents: Tyrone Wells - Remain

Not quite a sophomore slump, Tyrone Wells has traded his soulful vocals for a straight-ahead pop/rock sound on his second national release, Remain. I miss the urgent, heartbreaking, gorgeous, jealous love songs and his "inner Lenny Kravitz" (as HM's Doug Van Pelt once dubbed it) that captured me on Hold On. I speculate that many of the tracks on Wells' first record were written during the time he was wooing and winning his wife. Now that his marriage is established, his material is less fervent. I don't blame the T man -- I know that love is the most powerful force in the universe -- I just miss the fiery tunes he served us last time around.