Johnny Cash was great. There wasn't much music that my Grandpa liked that I could also appreciate. Where some music is timeless and some music is ageless, somehow Johnny Cash is both. Today we can find hints of Cash in plenty of the music coming out now. I jokingly called it "The Age of Hand Claps and Foot Stomps", but what it might be is more of a return to the roots of what makes great timeless music. Music that connects to people is made by real people. Johnny Cash was just a kid from Arkansas who wanted to sing and play a guitar, tell a story and make you feel something. Most of the groups that are connecting with people now are doing that same thing. But not all of them are using what Johnny Cash gave to us so literally.
It's pretty ballsy to take the most iconic lyrics of the most iconic Johnny Cash song to open your latest track but Matthew Houck doesn't care. In the first single off Phosphorescent's upcoming album Muchacho, Matthew Houck squeezes those iconic lyrics out of his broken voice box and totally makes them his own. They are so much his own that it took me a few listens to understand why this song felt so familiar.
The great thing about Phosphorescent is that they are familiar. Something about their music just feels right. It's like a blanket. Their new track "Song for Zula" is like a blanket that your parents keep in their linen closet for when you come home. It's ripped to shreds and patchy but it's warm and it feel like home. We like songs like that.
This song will get picked up by some indie Zach Braff/Josh Radnor movie trailer soon, let's enjoy it together before it makes its way to Diet Coke commercials.
