Kelp Monkey – Traveler
Genre: Classic Rock, Indie Rock, Garage Rock
Back in the grand old days of the hazy 1970s, people who’d acquired the ability to play rock n’ roll music really well might end up with a fortune to spend, personal jet planes to fly them around, and an army of hangers-on waiting to serve their every whim. Certainly, not every virtuoso was provided with the same level of comfort.
However, the chance that one might inherit this for performing rock music, meant enough people were persuaded to risk their livelihood and invest their time. Things have changed. It’s mostly due to the internet. One doesn’t go travelling to a different town in order to hear a virtuoso of which they’d learned through urban legend. One just that into a search engine.
Virtuoso singers are not easy to come by, but it’s when they are able to marry their abilities to genuinely captivating pieces of music that they become noteworthy. This is much more than a simple YouTube music wizard can achieve, or that an AI would be able to create. Kelp Monkey’s
Traveler feels like a not-too-distant recollection of Led Zeppelin III. However, mere imitation is not. The tenor vocals tower above the acoustic instrumental and are delivered with effortlessness, This is not a tune built on bombast alone. Close your eyes and the San Franciscan group will appear as the kind of folks that make the sort of sound that alt-rockers have been chasing for a while.
John Michael Hersey – You Are With Me
Genre: Folk, Classic-rock
I think that we all like to convince ourselves that our favourite musical artists work on improving their musical gifts all the time. You know, how Bob Dylan can’t help but break into poetry as he’s fixing breakfast in the morning. Or, how Neil Young writes a couple of songs each day since the day he turned 13 years of age. Things like that.
Exceptions certainly exist. However, for the most part, musicians as most folks in the world get tired of their labour at some point. They turn, call it a day, and take it easy. Fans are given a small glimpse of this once in a while. It’s especially evident when it comes to the louder, more bombastic forms of music. Do you really think that the older folks in punk and metal bands still listen to those genres? Most of them don’t and it shows.
Now, we’ll never be able to know for sure by John Michael Hersey may well be of a different breed. After releasing fifteen albums of original material one would think that he enjoys this. You Are With Me is a tender love song, delivered with gusto and sounding like the work of a man that still enjoys himself each and every time he picks up the guitar. Now, that’s a gift.
