Dear readers, I bring you the best singer-songwriter album of 2015 (so far). Carry, Illinois is Lizzy Lehman, a woman with a voice like Chrissie Hynde mixed with butter, who writes pop songs in the classic rock styles of Fleetwood Mac. And yes, I did read the same thing from the press release–but I read that after I’d already formed the opinion. The influences are clear, obvious, and wonderful. The songs are so good, in fact, that’s it hard to imagine one person wrote them all.

“Alabaster” also balances well between plaintive ballads and pop songs that, if there were still good radio stations, would be fighting for space in the top 40. There’s not a lot of room for independent, unique-sounding singer-songwriters these days. Hozier gives me hope, but otherwise everyone seems to be trying to do what Taylor Swift does.
It is albums like this that make me glad I still run this blog. It’s hard, as blogs are dying off and my readership has dwindled to less than a thousand readers a day, to stay focused. To stay invigorated. But getting to hear albums like this, which I never would have found on my own, and knowing I can play a tiny part in this band’s future success, is why I started this blog way back in 2001….

Sadly, only the above two songs are offered for streaming–no mpfrees, no album streams–but their 2014 release is for sale (cheap!) on Bandcamp, below…