Eric Taylor and Greg Brown

Right now I’m listening to Hollywood Pocketknife by Eric Taylor.  If you like lyrics as literature, Taylor is your guy.  Scuffletown is how I discovered him.  You can listen here.

Got a Twitter from a fellow saying he was about to buy his first Greg Brown album, and he wondered if I’d recommend one.  Pretty much impossible.  I’ve got the whole stack, or most of it.  So in lieu of that, here’s the approximate text of an email I sent to a friend who recently asked the same question:

Favorite album is tough.  But Poet Game is what got me started on him.  For a good idea of something recent, I like The Evening Call.  And when I was in some tiny town in Panama writing every day for hours and hours on Truck, I listened to In the Dark With You over and over and over because it was the one I had.

Some favorite singles:

– “A Little Excited” (from Milk of the Moon) (I quote that one in Truck)

– “Lately” (from Poet Game) (exquisitely spare lonely Bo Ramsey guitar solo on bridge — honestly, listen to it just for that)

– “Tell Me It’s Gonna Be Alright” (from One Big Town) (this song makes me scary lonely…I have put it on repeat for hours and written through tears)

– And for something different, just to be amazed at his poet’s voice and poet’s delivery, try “Eugene” from The Evening Call

Barely touches it, but it’s a start.