Very nice twangy singer-songwriter. Not really country, but rootsy and acoustic. I guess that this is what they call Americana. Whatever, this is a really hard genre to get right, and
Grant Lee Phillips does an admirable job. Songs are catchy and gentle with tasteful spacious instrumentation. Phillips has a beautiful voice, full with a nice twangy edge.
The lyrics are very singer-songwriterly. That is, they're abstract and describe people (probably inspired by Phillips's acquaintainces) in grand, metaphoric terms, often drawing on American
myths. This means that they are also occassionally
pretentious. Also some songs are just too draggy, unoffensive, and boring. But the good songs make
up for them.


Points of comparison would be Van Morrison, Jeff Buckley, Gram Parsons, and the Red House Painters.
I have a soft spot in my heart for Grant Lee Phillips. His old band, Grant Lee Buffalo was the first good new band that I liked after I stopped listening to the oldies station. And he appeals to the part of my brain that wants to catch the wind with Donovan.

Stand-out tracks: 3,1,7,9

1. sweet ballad. lots of strings, epic, swooping

2. desparing lyrics, haunted

3. more upbeat, catchy. droning fiddle. song of infatuation, celebrating a girl

4. very '70's singer-songwriter. draggy, a little boring.

5. sad song about a relationship. titles says it all, "Always Friends." Some howlers in the lyrics. Spacious with strnigs

6. rootsy song about a dangerous woman or maybe about Jane Fonda. Western cowboy howling.

7. banjo driven, spare, a little unnerving. Maybe a poppy 16 Horsepower.

8. philosophical ballad, pleasant

9. piano-driven, old-timey story-telling ballad about brutality against a
Native American woman

10. blue-eyed soul waltz, very "Astral Weeks"

11. beautiful Gram Parsons cover. epic country