Independent Music Shows Its Awesome Side
Josh Woodward, one of my favorite independent musicians ever, has had a policy of releasing all of his music for free, as well as selling CDs of his music for name-your-own-price. In keeping with my policy of publicizing things that I love, I'd like to recommend that you check out his new album - a two-part disc called The Simple Life.
Josh is a one-man band, and being an extraordinarily talented individual, he records all of his instrumentally and vocally complete tracks in his home studio. (I don't know how he does it. It's really something else.) His sounds vary quite a bit - if I were to pick a "defining" sound, I'd say it's acoustic, melodic, and clean. You can't just use that as your basis for expectation, though. Every once in a while, he surprises you with an electric guitar, a piano, or even a tiny touch of electronica - and it sounds amazing every time.
The sounds of The Simple Life
The Simple Life has been a work in progress over the past few months, and I've loved watching it grow. (Josh also has a policy of publishing each song as soon as he's finished with it, and publishing any re-mixes or re-recordings.) Part 1 is "upbeat and unashamedly poppy" - something different for those of us who know Josh's usual modicum of haunting laments, and part 2 "focuses on simple beauty, stripped down to its bare, acoustic essentials".
Edit: April 22 2008, 03:22:07
I've published BitTorrent files for the MP3s, and I've also re-encoded them to OGG Vorbis for those of you that like to use Free software.
For those of you interested in trying before you buy, you can listen to each track individually at www.joshwoodward.com - I hope you enjoy his work as much as I do. And if you do, please, tell your friends. Burn a CD and give someone a copy - he wants you to!
