Joshua Gabriel is a poet first, and secondly a  second. He is proof that music can be more than just a surface, that audibles are capable of more than just the displacement of sound. He is also friends with another talented band, She Keeps Bees, proving that talent begets talent that fosters talent which harbors sweet, sweet music. The Electric Dylan references are obvious, but unlike Grandfather Bob, who was somewhat an inevitable product of his times, Joshua Gabriel straddles the past with his present and creates a sound that is concomitantly all his own but ours to hold. Songs like “52nd Life,” off his album titled Walk the Plank, he tells the story of a twenty-something’s reality with his guitar: that is if you’re an intellectually disenfranchised hipster. But it’s also plain damn good music that you can mellow out to if you’re not in the mood to twist your mind with thought. With a lyrically distorted guitar gliding past simple drum beats that almost aren’t there but reassuringly remain a constant behind him, Gabriel is a pied-piper and soothsayer in one: one which I will follow out of town and into any damn melodic field he wants to lead me. But don’t take my word for it; see this talented man by CLICKING HERE or CLICKING HERE, or you can view the following videos:

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I’m willing to bet that Leonard Mynx makes Damien Rice cry. He is melancholy in his cheeriest of moments, but that loping depression that is reticent throughout his album, Vesper, rings with plaintive authenticity where some albums feel staged and forced. With track titles such as “Valley of Sickness and Death” and “Mary,” and an album cover that features two ravens on a telephone wire, the solemn themes of the album are pierced with one beautifully, if not obviously, hopeful track: “Northwest Passage;” here  a strong and steady harmonica leads you into a song about yearning and travel, and makes your mind and heart want more and more. Overall, the album is the perfect compliment to a cup of tea, a cinnamon candle, and some soul searching journal entries (as well as a chocolate cookie or two. or three. or fourorfiveorsixorseven). Find more of Leonard by CLICKING HERE for his myspace and HERE for his official website.