Perhaps my greatest musical discovery of the past year has been M Ward. I stumbled on Ward three years ago via his side project with Zooey Dechanel, She & Him. As much as I liked She & Him it took me a long time to give Ward's solo albums a listen. I regret waiting so long.
Ward's been releasing albums since the early aughts. I finally gave his solo work a listen when he released his most recent effort A Wasteland Companion. The music blew me away and I immediately took to YouTube and iTunes to give his earlier works a spin (figuratively, in these days of digital music).
Listen, She & Him are amazing and I can't wait for their newest release coming out in the next few days. But M Ward has been a true revelation. Some classify him as folk but his work is much more far-ranging that the designation implies. If I could pick someone to sound like on guitar it would be Ward. His vocals are understated but full of power. His subtleties are welcome in an age of bombast and simple-mindedness.
I have listened to all his records now several times and am just shocked that it took me almost ten years to find his music. I've always thought I was plugged into good music but man I sure whiffed on this one. He's been on Letterman, Conan, etc and I missed every performance.
I like all his stuff but if I had to choose a starting point I would go with his 2006 effort Hold Time. Every time I hear this record I want to stop what I'm doing and pick up a guitar and play. His music inspires me to greater levels of creativity. That is about the best compliment I can give a musician.
He'll be coming to DFW on tour soon with She & Him. Unfortunately I'll be out of pocket and won't be able to attend. Truly bad timing. I'm sure I'll see him around the bend sometime. He likes to play Austin quite a bit. He's worth the trip down I-35.
