Caitlin Rose gathered a lot of love for her debut album Own Side Now. And rightfully so, I might add. It’s a beautiful album, where her mostly acoustic songs use her voice to stand out.

In The Stand In, that acoustic folky sound is replaced with a bit more electricity, a bit more instrumentation and a lot more intensity.

Her fantastic voice is still the focal point of the music, but this mixes folk, rock, alt. country and traditional country into something I choose to call “Caitlin Rose”. This albums just snags you by the balls (if you have them, if not what ever is most handy and available on your particular body) (<----editor's note: I think he's talking about boobs), fills your mind with hot guitars, well crafted melodies and plain out fantastic, well written lyrics.

Someone has listened to a bit of Tom Petty, which is obvious in the first song “No One To Call”, a song that promises an album that will fulfill your every need. Caitlin Rose then channels Patty Griffin, Linda Ronstad and Patsy Cline – and mixes it up with a very 70’s sound with guitars doubling up on you like there’s no tomorrow.

A lot of this reminds me of Andrew Combs Worried Man, where the energy and the will to find inspiration in what could be called a “retro-sound” is one of the main reasons for success. She even mixes in a bit of Pink Floyd in “Waitin”, and it just sounds natural and correct. She mixes genres, and finds inspiration from a well of sources and creates her own bit of magic with it. There are so many details to point to, you hear some Fleetwood Mac here, some Patsy Cline there, and then there’s a bit of Tom Petty and even a bit of New Orleans Jazz. And in “Silver Sings” I actually had to google to check if Jeff Lynne had brought ELO in to play on the song.

But all the while it’s done with style, she show off a vast knowledge of musical history, and just picks out the good bits to create something that works for her and her magic voice. Let’s hope she keeps doing her thing, and avoids getting slaughtered and eaten by The Nashville Machine.

Some of my favorites are “No One To Call”, the out-of-this-world wonderful “Only a Clown” which she wrote with Jayhawker Gary Louris, the beautiful crooner “Pink Champagne – where Spencer Cullum really kills it on the pedal steel – and naturally the lovely ballad “Golden Boy”. “Menagerie” has a catchy tune that will stick to your mind like dried cucumber on a window, and anyone who has ever drunk-texted an ex will be shamed by “Old Numbers”.

I just plain out love this album, and yes this IS Essential Listening.

Caitlin Rose – No One To Call
Caitlin Rose – Old Numbers
Caitlin Rose – Only A Clown

Check out her website, or hook up with her bandpage on Facebook.

Local news personalities could do a darn good fluff piece about Grabass Charlestons: the kind of band becoming increasingly rare in these days, hometown heroes, touring for a decade, day jobs, then–triumph! Modest southern-style triumph! Dale & the Careeners is the best thing they’ve ever done.

Listening the this album, the spirit never leaves you. You put your faith in Dale from the first song “Stormy Weather” and it lifts you over any inconsistency or crack in the album (not that there are many!). It’s a churchish fullness of  spirit and faith. Hearing stories of people with almost nothing (“Things are looking up since he’s approved for Medicaid”) and the communities that try to make up for the lack of everything (“In the bottom of the 12th, Longo went yard, and this completed the miracle; All along Joe told us that dreams come true; and Dale is a Raindog, too!”). It’s rock that matches what you actually see and live, not what you’d romantically or religiously imagine. So even when writer Will Thomas takes a direct approach (“Dale’s the janitor; his charge is cleaning out the toilets”) it’s just so he can get on to the next thing–as a listener you never lose your sense of plenty.

Grabass more than Hot Water Music has been Gainesville’s edition of Avail or The Bouncing Souls. The realization of punk’s attention to detail and rock’s spiritual ascendance. They extract the music right out of your goddamned soul and amplify that gorgeous relief of recognition. One of the most-earned Essential Listenings I’ve ever given. (They’re all fucking earned. Every great album is a miracle.)

Grabass Charlestons – Stormy Weather
Grabass Charlestons – Dale Is A Raindog, Too
Grabass Charlestons – Addicted Together
Grabass Charlestons – Young Maniacs

Buy Dale & the Careeners on LP, CD, or MP3 from No Idea Records. Listen to the whole album on No Idea’s Soundcloud. Like Grabass on Facebook. And NOTE that they are easing out of the name “Grabass Charlestons,” which they’ve outgrown, and billing themselves as “The Careeners.” Look for their next albums and all else to be credited to THE CAREENERS.

The band dedicated the record “to the life and memory of Lynnae Hottinger.” Visit the Lynnae Hottinger Foundation for Ovarian Cancer Research website.