Music recommendation: Matthew Perryman Jones

I'm gonna play to my strengths on this blog and do some music recommendations, since people are always asking me for them. I have bought an absolutely ridiculous amount of music on iTunes since I moved to Mexico--more than I care to admit, actually. I also buy alot of CDs of independent artists that can't be found on iTunes.

I'll start with a CD I recently received in the mail: Throwing Punches in the Dark by Matthew Perryman Jones. Matthew is one of my favorite male vocalists, so I knew this CD was going to be good. (Actually, I very impatiently anticipated its release.) He has sung a few songs on each of the four Indelible Grace records. His last few records have been more stripped down and folky for the most part, but they were both full of great songs performed well. This record is a full band record, produced by Neilson Hubbard (who produced Glen Phillips' new record--more on that later). Turns out it's even better than I thought. You have to order it through the link on his MySpace site, but it's worth it.