{for your listening pleasure}

i remember it like it was yesterday, the summer before my senior year of college.  one of my roommates' friends came over to have some hang time on our front porch, a place where we spent many a summer's night that year.  he had just come back in town after interning with a record label in nashville and brought this yellow cd for us to check out that the record label had just picked up & wasn't out yet to the public.  it was a guy who none of us had ever heard of, but his raspy, earthy tone and heart deep lyrics caught my attention right away and we were instantly hooked.  the artist was ray lamontagne and it was his first album, trouble. ever since that summer it's been one of my favorite albums and will always take me back to those summer nights hanging out on the porch before my last year of college approached.

Ray has had a few albums since that first, but this one, "God willin' & The Creek Don't Rise" came out yesterday & i've had it on constant repeat.  he's added a band to this album and i have to say i'm highly pleased with the outcome.  from the opening track, "repo man," there's a jam to this album that hasn't been present in prior albums.  go download this one today, i don't think you'll be disappointed.

the second artist that i've just recently discovered is jj heller.  the lovely elizabeth over at almond leaf studios, who i've recently had the pleasure of working with (more to come on that later this week), tweeted recently that she was listening to jj heller so i thought i'd check her out and boy am i glad i did.  don't you just love twitter? anyways... back to the music.

jj heller's lyrics have hit so close to home for me as a girl learning to fall in love with God and who He is, learning to grow into my own skin and discover myself, and growing and stretching to reach for my full potential.  i would say her music embodies that for me.  both of her albums "the pretty and plain" and "painted red" are two that i've really enjoyed and look forward to getting to know more in detail the more and more i listen.

{happy.wednesday}

aw