Parrothead Ramblings

If you like Mulligan and Zobl, Karwin, and Duarte, you'll love Dave Potts.

HEY! YOU! If you are one of the folks who skip reading Parrothead Ramblings on the days I review music, you'd better just back off one second there, Sparky. You're going to kick yourself one day if you miss this one.

How jaded is today's popular music industry? How is it they continually produce an endless stream of talent-free, ultra-successful, ultra-wealthy jerks who scream misogyny, violence, drugs, racism and homophobia, while a guy like Dave Potts produces some of the most thoughtful, pleasant, and emotional music you could hope for, yet labors away in relative obscurity?

Judging from what I heard on $12.99, my guess would be that Dave sort of prefers it that way. He's more about the little things that make life worth living than he is about arenas and huge concert halls. He's more about playing small town AA baseball, just for the love of the game, than big-league steroid-infused moneyball. The AA player in Dave's If I Broke the Record wonders what it would be like to be a big-name big-league player, but is too principled, and loves the game too much, to sell himself out to get there. Dave's approach to music seems much the same.

I've been a Parrothead a long time, folks, since long before the word was invented. I know what true Parrotheads are about, and I know what kind of music they like.

This is it.

My iPod is full of folk music, hundreds upon hundreds of songs, from Dylan and Baez, to Denver and Lightfoot, to Ellis Paul and the Indigo Girls. But somehow my thumb continues to find $12.99 over and over again. This is one of the best albums I've heard in a very, very, long time, my friends.

Here you'll find home. Children. Baseball. A local fishing hole. The county fair. Your backyard. Even a worn-out but warm and cozy, memory-filled old sweatshirt. This album is that old sweatshirt. It wraps around you, makes you cozy, and leaves you filled with your own memories.

Unlike a lot of independently produced albums, the production quality of $12.99 is superb. Dave's voice was made for this, and he plays the acoustic guitar the way I wish I could play the acoustic guitar. The dobro, mandolin, percussion and fiddle work rival any you will hear anywhere else.

If it's thoughtful, natural, unpretentious, guy-next-door music you're looking for, you just found it. You may not find the beach here, but you'll still thank me for turning you on to $12.99.

You can find $12.99 at CDBaby for - what a coincidence - only $12.99. But don't do what I did and buy it from CDBaby, get it at his website, and he'll throw in another CD for free on a special running the next few days.

You'll thank me next week.

Oh, and to Dave: If you make it out to the southwest, and are looking for a house concert, mi casa es su casa.
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