Music isn’t what it once was, and it was probably never the way we pretend. Someone once said that some people are quiet simply because they don’t have much to say and they’re smart enough to keep that to themselves. But Arkansas’ Kevin Kerby is no manufactured enigma. He’s just an honest working man who happens to write songs imbued with mystery and grace, that come plainly sung, like country, and sliding sideways toward the truth like real poetry ... except you can’t be affected by them unless you listen to them, unless you hear the slow surge and slow-motion tumble of the words.

This album appears to be autobiographical, although that could be just an artist’s trick - that is to say, the true magic that transforms the specific experience into a universal throe. It’s simple stuff really, three chords and the recognition that we’re all in this together - a kind of uncommon empathy and a habit of sober self-appraisal.

“I have a tendency to panic,” our troubadour admits, “and take the easy way out/I am surprisingly familiar /With the coward’s route.” I doubt that, brother, but sing it anyway.

- Philip Martin [via Arkansas Democrat-Gazette]