Thursday, Mar. 18, 2010

Pod Picks for March 18, 2010

This week we recommend the following fresh tracks for downloading (legally, of course) to your iPod or other personal media device.

"When My Time Comes" by Dawes

This California-based band matches its surroundings perfectly. There is a subtle ocean breeze, rolling hills, valleys of introspection, and earthy tones. These tones mix in the band's heritage - the driving drum accented with stops and starts of The Band, lyrics that recall Dylan and harmonies that may match Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. This track has a live feel and the band is entrenched in a great groove - working the organ, bass and acoustic guitar to accompany the simple, forward beat to deliver the vocals that detail coming to terms with being an adult.

"Please Don't Stop the Music" by Jamie Cullum

You can keep your Michael Buble and Harry Connick Jr. with their safe versions of the standards, give us this Brit instead. This jazz/piano crooner jumped out a few years ago with his breakout album, "Twentysomething," establishing him as a stylish performer. He takes the essentials of big band and jazz trios fusing them with pop and funk sensibilities. This Rihanna song sounds natural in this setting and he plays it for all it's worth. His hands going crazy over his keys, an upright bass is pounded accordingly, capped off with the swing snap of a snare. Cullum makes this song his own.

"The Weary Kind" by Ryan Bingham

The theme song from the surprise hit film and Oscar-winning "Crazy Heart." Bingham's voice is rusty and inflective. For most of the song it is just Bingham and his acoustic guitar, delivering lyrics about a life on the run, road-weary, beaten down by life but rising every morning to face a world that isn't doing him any favors. A rough-and-tumble ballad that translates the transience of traveling musicians and their ability to sacrifice any semblance of a normal life in a journey to live out their dream. A young Bingham sells the material like an old soul.