My main goal in life is still to just get rid of the pain and numbness and therefore I’ve been neglecting the blog and focused on doing all sort of exercises and paying my hard-earned money to all kind of specialists. I think the next step is try and see whether a chiropractor could help me out. So far it feels like music is still the only thing that helps. This week my medicine were the new albums by James McMurtry and Mark Edgar Stuart.

James McMurtry doesn’t need an introduction. He has been writing damn fine songs for a really long time. Sure it’s been a while since his 2008 album Just Us Kids, but he hasn’t lost his touch and his brand new album Complicated Game is again full of wonderful songs. This is South Dakota from the new album.

James McMurtry Website

Mark Edgar Stuart also released a new album this week. I didn’t know him beforehand, but John Paul Keith mentioned Mark Edgar Stuart’s new album on his FB and that got me interested. What I found was a mighty good album called Trinity My Dear that was released a few days ago by Madjack Records. Here’s We Were in Bloom from this beautiful album.

Mark Edgar Stuart Website

Porter & The Pollies, but separately this time around. I’ve been listening to Chris Porter since The Back Row Baptists days. Broken Hearts & Bad Decisions by The Back Row Baptists, Some Dark Holler’s album and that Porter & The Pollies EP/mini-album. I’ve really enjoyed all of those releases. Porter is currently getting ready to release his solo album This Red Mountain and I’m very confident that I’m going to like this one as well. The release date has been set for March 10th 2015, but the first outtake has already been out for a while. It’s called Hardest Healing and you can hear this great song below.

Chris Porter Website

The Pollies are also releasing a new record this year. I learned this over at Bucketfull of Nails today. I had already decided to write a post about Chris Porter, so when I noticed this, it was almost too obvious decision to team these together under the same post. Sorry about that. Anyway, I really dig this sweet song Lost from the forthcoming The Pollies album. This has pop sensibility all around it and like the title of this blog says, I’m really a pop guy at heart and therefore it’s no wonder I’m liking this a lot. The Pollies album will be released by Single Lock Records later in the year.

The Pollies at Facebook

That one above was one of the best albums released last year and definitely showed that Caleb Caudle is a first-class songwriter. Caleb is currently in the process of making a follow-up called Carolina Ghost and has set an indiegogo project to help covering the costs of making this future classic. Watch Caleb Caudle singing Tuscaloosa below and if you like that as much as I do, consider participating his indiegogo campaign for Carolina Ghost.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIPwjWckTf4]

And of course I have to take this opportunity to recommend that wonderful album Paint Another Layer On My Heart. This is Trade All The Lights from that beautiful record.

Caleb Caudle Website

Aaron Lee Tasjan also had an indiegogo project a while back. I didn’t participate and I’m already regretting that wholeheartedly. I certainly would have loved to hear his full-length debut in advance, but now I just have to wait until it hits the shops. I’ve been aware of his existence for quite some time, but didn’t fully start paying attention until now. During the past few weeks I’ve been listening to Aaron a lot. I’ve listened his Daytrotter session several times, watched a lot of youtube videos and listened to this song called Living Proof countless amount of times (this soundcloud clip + various live videos). Such a damn good songwriter. Here’s that Living Proof + another favourite Judy Was A Punk Jesus Freak from Live and Breathing’s excellent video vaults.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBHNLv0QoN4]

Aaron Lee Tasjan Website