The Lady Snow mentioned Hal Ketchum on the two-step thread. He is totally not the kind of artist who usually floats my boat. Smooth, sweet, pretty country pop and folk.
But I have always LOVED Hal. He's a good songwriter. Consistent. Some of his songs might on the surface sound like radio country, but they are not. Smarter and not emotionally manipulative. When he writes, he's not trying to create a hit. He is accessing himself, a real person, a good person. And while the experiences he talks about are very common and he is not a genius with words, he still creates original moments. He does have some roots stuff and definitely collaborates with roots musicians, who adore him. But, I guess what I mean is you could miss that it's really good if you just went by the sound.
And I love his mellow personal energy. I was sad when I learned -- many years ago now -- that he has MS. I have only seen him a few times. He is still out and about though he has had years of little to no productivity. He's well loved by his peers, which is pretty rare.
