video review: 'vinyl' by william michael morgan

Well, this turned out about as well as I could have hoped. Solid record too, really did enjoy this.

Next up... well, I'm not sure I'm ready to really deal with Danny Brown quite yet, so I might tackle something else... we'll see, so stay tuned!

album review: 'vinyl' by william michael morgan

So as I've mentioned a couple of times, country in 2016 has been overall pretty promising. Sure, the indie scene is having an absolutely fantastic year, especially on the edges of the genre, but I'd be remiss not to mention that the mainstream seems to finally be recovering from the stiff and sterile metropolitan trends that came after bro-country collapsed in on itself in 2014. Sure, there are still plenty of mainstream country records that play to that more synthetic sound, but the winds are changing, and the growth of huge sellers like Chris Stapleton or even reliable staples like Jon Pardi are telling the industry that an old-school or neotraditional sound might be viable again.

And coming right into that mix is William Michael Morgan. Born in Mississippi, he caught some traction with a song cowritten with, yes, Sam Hunt called 'I Met A Girl'. Not particularly a great song - felt a little run-of-the-mill lyrically for a love song - but the production definitely intrigued me, with more pedal steel to match the gentle acoustic vibe than I had heard on a mainstream hit in a long time. Coupled with a voice that reminded me in the right way of George Strait, I was among the critics who were going into his debut album with skepticism - we've seen too many upstarts get sucked towards trendy sounds or fall off the radar, look what happened to Easton Corbin - but also some hope. Given that I've never really been on board with Jon Pardi, I had some hopes this kid could be the real deal - maybe not at the level of an act like Cody Jinks, but I could hope, right? So I made sure to check out Vinyl - did we get the return to neotraditional quality country radio has been missing for so long?

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - september 10, 2016 (VIDEO) (VACATION REVIEW!)

This is the first video I've ever shot that's entirely handheld... not sure it entirely works, but I'm overall pretty happy with it, especially in terms of the picture quality. And plus, Barcelona!

Next up... ah, okay, Glass Animals soon, so stay tuned!