Since we seem to have some fans of the Jayhawks, I was wondering if anyone has listened to Mason Jennings. Most of his stuff if pretty good, but he has an album called Use Your Voice that is phenomenal. It's one of my 10 favorite albums of the decade, and should definitely be checked out, if you like Folk/Americana.

Anyone heard it and like it?

I want to like him, but I am kind of annoyed by how his voice constantly starts below the pitch and then tunes up to the note on every word. I like a drawl as much as the next guy, but I would like to see a little more variation in his style. I like the sound of his voice, but not the choices he makes.

I like his two Dylan covers on the I'm Not There soundtrack and the song "Crown" from Use Your Voice, though.

Am I wrong about his voice?

quote:

I like his two Dylan covers on the I'm Not There soundtrack and the song "Crown" from Use Your Voice, though.

I agree with Crown, it's a great song. Also check out Ulysses, Drinking as Religion, or Lemon Grove Avenue off Use Your Voice also.

I like his music a lot so his voice doesn't bother me, but I could see how it could bother some. After all, Bob Dylan's voice bothers a lot of people.

I should listen more to see if it would grow on me.

I like his songs, his lyrics, the sound of his albums...It's just that he seems to do the same thing vocally over and over again. And that thing just happens to annoy me.

I wish he would just hit the note sometimes instead of sliding up to it all the time.

I love Bob Dylan's voice, by the way. And some of my other favorite vocalists' styles have bugged me at first, so I will try to listen again.

The whole album I mentioned is great, but if you just wanted to check out a few songs to see if it's your style, check out the 3 I mentioned. I hate to mention specific songs since the whole album is great, but if you don't like those songs you probably wouldn't want to buy the album.

I have one of his earlier albums somewhere, Birds Flying Away. He was still pretty underground at that point, and I saw him in a little bar in Eau Claire, Wisconsin a few times. At first I thought his voice and singing style were really striking, but after a while, it did start to get repetitive and border on gimmicky. He is a pretty good songwriter. I actually went to school with his bass player of the last several years; I can at least vouch that he's got a fantastic bassist (Chris Morrissey, who also plays with Ben Kweller, sometimes Andrew Bird).