If You Haven’t Heard – Ghosts I’ve Met

Well here we are at the 3rd installment of “If You Haven’t Heard” and I have some beautiful Americana ballads from “Ghosts I’ve Met”.  So put down your whiskey and grab the one that you want to hang onto and press play, you won’t be disappointed.

Sam Watts is the heart of this “rotating cast” of players that enjoy the Ghosts I’ve Met title and he has been welcoming many an artist to join him over the last few years.  The recordings see influences and assistance from co-founder Ben Blankenship along with Anne Marie Ruljanchic, Brent Arnold, Jen Turner, Karen Waltuch, Margaret White, Michael Lerner, Joe Seely and Amy Bezunartea – did I say rotating cast yet??  Take a trip over to the MySpace page and see all the artists this group has worked with…who’s who to say the least.   Recordings have taken place over the last few years (since 2005) and although not all of his material has seen the light of day to this point, there has been a release earlier this year of an EP entitled “Payphone Patience” (that should be for sale through snocap in the US and their MySpace page).  I have been lucky enough to receive a few tracks so as to not stalk his MySpace player.

The EP hmmm…it floats some sadcore Americana ballads that encompass and wrap around you, and not just singer-songwriter stuff, this is full band heartache here.  The title track brings beautiful piano accents (from Darren Jesse of Hotel Lights – thank you very much) alongside a waning violin…stunning.  This is the kind of stuff this EP is made of and while it has been done before, it usually isn’t done quite this well.  It is a bit confusing why there isn’t more of this band floating around, they definitely have an audience in me (and now you fair readers)

I have included the aforementioned title track for “Payphone Patience” along with one other song.   The additional track is one that I think might have been a close second for getting the title of the EP – “Ghosts in the Snow”- hauntingly beautiful, a bit more stark than “Payphone…” and hits the mark.  Remember to visit You Crazy Dreamers for another track, “Reno”, on the mirrored version of this post over yonder.

Hope you all like it, now go to the MySpace page and convince Sam to release that full length album!

~Smansmith