Caleb Stine – I Wasn’t Built For A Life Like This

Caleb Stine: I Wasn’t Built For A Life Like This (Self-released, 2010)

Caleb Stine is a country/folk troubadour from Baltimore and I Wasn’t Built For A Life Like This is already his fifth album. He hasn’t enjoyed a huge success, but based on this intimate, bare and beautiful album, the reason for that certainly isn’t the lack of quality in his songwriting and phrasing. This guy is the real deal and not just another country singer-songwriter. The whole album is filled with acoustic beauty, gentle confessions and down-to-earth warmness. The highlight of the album is the song When She Comes, which is just pure magic to me. That song can travel far deeper into your body than where an army of doctors could reach. I suppose there are a couple of songs that only falls into the category “really good, but nothing spectacular”, but it doesn’t change the fact that I Wasn’t Built For A Life Like This is a very convincing album.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBSQh29Iv0I]

Caleb Stine Website

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Doc Dailey & Magnolia Devil – Victims, Enemies & Old Friends

Doc Dailey & Magnolia Devil: Victims, Enemies & Old Friends (Southern Discipline Recording Company, 2010)

Doc Dailey & Magnolia Devil from Muscle Shoals, Alabama makes me want to rewrite my albums of the year 2010 list. Their debut album Victims, Enemies & Old Friends is just pretty damn impressive from first note to last word. The core of the album lies deep in the americana soil and Victims, Enemies & Old Friends contains lots of captivating americana/folk rock songs  flavored with the greatest instruments like mandolin, banjo & fiddle. Doc is certainly a great storyteller and the lyrics remain major part of the charm throughout the record. I also love the fact that they are willing and able to bring a lot of haunting melodies and pop sense to the table and it makes this album one of the most delightful americana albums I’ve heard in a while (they show that you can deal with emotion-filled subjects in a country song without sounding like you’re shaking your broken heart in an empty whiskey bottle). Gritty southern pop is how the bio describes it and I suppose that’s about right. Call it what you want, it sounds absolutely thrilling to my pop-soaked heart. This is a fantastic album and would have been a serious top ten contender, if I had heard it before making those end of the year lists.

Listen to Prove Me Wrong:
Prove Me Wrong by Doc Dailey & The Magnolia Devil

Listen to Sunday School:
Sunday School by Doc Dailey & The Magnolia Devil

Doc Dailey & Magnolia Devil at Bandcamp
Doc Dailey & Magnolia Devil Website

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Mirel Wagner – A truly great new singer-songwriter

Oh my. Half an hour ago I was just browsing facebook photos and now I’m completely in love with Mirel Wagner. A friend of mine had a concert photo from Mirel’s concert in Tampere on his facebook. I had never heard of her before (I probably should have, because Jean Ramsey has apparently been shouting her name on rooftops) and therefore I went to check her myspace. I expected her to be good, but I certainly didn’t expect her to be bloody brilliant and utterly wonderful. Which she most definitely is. I was instantly hooked to her captivating songs. This stuff just crawls under your skin and sends sad & beautiful shivers into your heart. Kind of like early Leonard Cohen meets stripped-down Mazzy Star, if that makes any sense. Maybe it doesn’t, but I can’t come up with anything better, because right now I’m just staring into the darkness with these beautiful songs as my company. This is obviously extremely highly and monstrously recommended material. Just check out her brilliant folk/blues songs on her myspace and spread the word. An album should be out in february or thereabouts. It will be released by Kioski Records.

Mirel Wagner at Facebook
Mirel Wagner at Myspace

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