
Vince Vanguard – Bound For Glory
Genre: Folk rock, Americana, Psychedelic Rock
Similar artists: The Grateful Dead, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Jackson Browne
Certain people will always make for better copy. At least, that’s true in the minds of those who run important publications. For example, the American singer-songwriters of the 1970s were an absolute dream come true to the likes of Rolling Stone Magazine. Here were kids drunk on the myth of Dylan, coffee houses, who possessed the kind of artistic ambition that not even novelists could muster making up songs about the American dream.
There was opposition, of course. Your Lester Bangs and Nick Kents of the world liked the unhinged characters of rock n’ roll and, so, naturally gravitated towards punk-rock and glam. But, even they, in moments of honesty and upon propping their ears open, had to admit that these folk and blues-inspired artists could play like demons and sing just like angels. Most of the time.
Vince Vanguard’s Bound For Glory belongs to a tradition in American pop music where singers could recite the telephone book and produce a gorgeous sound and where the show could last for days, and nobody would seem to mind. There’s an artistry to both these things, and Vanguard’s ability is apparent from the start.
Odie Leigh – Habits Held
Genre: Folk, Americana, Acoustic
Human brains have a knack for working out ways to block out information that requires them to do any extra work. It is how we stay lazy, but, arguably, also how we stay sane. Music, especially the variety that requires a bit more effort on the listener’s part, has fallen into that category.
It didn’t happen all of a sudden, though. It took decades of Top 40 hits being launched at the public like projectiles for folks to develop their own defense mechanism. Advertisers know this and use a funny font to paint their messages. Record labels know this and add dissonant notes, yells, and all sorts of bells and whistles meant to lure you from your daze.
That’s just how things stand. But what about the real storytellers for whom more than their words and their sense of humor would appear as a gigantic excess? Odie Leigh’s heartbreakingly humorous folk song Habits Held challenges your own listening habits. Are you still able to listen to earnest tales delivered with a human touch? You may need to work yourself up to it, of course. It will be worth it, though. Leigh is as natural as it gets and is not playing any angles.