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Album Of The Day: American IV: The Man Comes Around by Johnny Cash

 The Man Comes Around album - Out of the black background, a light illuminates the face and forehead of an old white man, Johnny Cash. Above in huge letters is his last name, 'Cash'.

Released 22 years ago today, this was the 67th album released by Johnny Cash and the final album released before his death. Only a few songs are written by the 70-year-old Cash, but this elder statesman of country does a great job of covering songs from many other genres and writers and making them his own. Traditional songs like "Danny Boy" and "Tear Stained Letter" join songs from The Beatles, Sting, Nirvana and Depeche Mode. Like many of Johnny Cash's albums, it's not exactly very sunny and positive, as it speaks of a hard life. But this album does also speak to love and redemption. It's great to hear an experienced musician recording in his later years and giving shout-outs to other artists by covering their work.

Release Year: 2002
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Album Of The Day: 10,000 Angels (Part One) by Jeremy Casella

Album Art of Jeremy Casella's 10,000 Angels (Part One) EP - On a sandy brown background with a cream border, a drawing of a bird from the top down with a halo around its head and rays stretching down from the halo.

Jeremy Casella is a great independent Christian folk/rock artist who has been making music for at least 25 years now. In 2003 or so, he signed a record deal and recorded a great third album, but then the record label canned it because it wasn't what they thought the market wanted to hear. (I've heard it, and it's magnificent!) Despite this terrible setback, Jeremy recorded some of the songs from that album in a more stripped-down, acoustic format and released it as this EP, 10,000 Angels (Part One). This recording shows the timeless beauty of these songs as they still work great without the strings, backing vocals, and full band accoutrements. And even after being let down by the music industry, Jeremy kept writing and has released 3 more independent albums in the years since then. I hear more music is in the works as well!

Release Year: 2004
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Album Of The Day: Home by Jami Smith

Album Art of Jami Smith's Home album - Four different photos of a woman playing guitar and singing, from various angles, in a somewhat dark space. Atop those photos, written in hand-written scribbles are the artist's name and the album title, with an outline of a house (a square with an angled roof) next to it in the middle, and the word 'Live' in the top left.

Jami Smith has been one of those lesser-known praise and worship artists for decades. Home is one of her early albums, which was released on Vertical/Integrity Music, a fairly large Christian label, though most of her more recent albums have been more independent. Jami and her band bring lots of passion and energy to this live recording at Oklahoma Baptist University. I like the guitars throughout this recording a lot. The album is produced by David Crowder. Jami Smith's voice is beautiful but has a bit more grit and depth to it than some of the more well-known female worship leaders. Most of the songs are written by Smith, and it's an album I enjoy listening to regularly.

Release Year: 2001
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Album Of The Day: Mmhmm by Relient K

Album Art of Relient K's Mmhmm album - A drawing of a green plant sticking up into the clouds with the top of it ending in a sunflower fully spread out. Below it, are 3 different offshoots with flowers closed and wilted. Above the flower written in the clouds is the artist name and the album title in blue in a jagged, comic font.

Released 20 years ago today, Mmhmm is my favorite album in Relient K's discography. Matt Thiessen, Matt Hoopes and the band kept adding layers of nuance to their earlier pop-punk style, and this album adds a lot of variety to that base. It's definitely very guitar-based and band-heavy, but sometimes they slow it to just a sparse instrumentation with Matt Thiessen's vocals and keyboards going in for a tender moment or even some electronic elements. Lyrically, it's clear that the band was growing as humans, as many of the lyrics talk about relationships, growth and a break-up of some sort. But there's also hope here for future improvement and that there's "Life After Death And Taxes". This one was definitely on heavy rotation for the next few years after it came out, and I still enjoy it all the way through 20 years later.

Release Year: 2004
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Album Of The Day: You Belong Here by Leagues

Album Art of Leagues's You Belong Here album - The back and side of a classic car of some sort, a green color with chrome edging. The car is very worn, with the paint coming off the top of the trunk. The window into the car is dusty and someone wrote 'you belong here' in the dust with their finger.

This was one of my favorite finds of the early 2010s. I saw this band open for a few other artists before their album came out, and I loved their vibe. Singer Thad Cockrell has been doing country and rock for decades, and the other band members have also been playing for other bands for decades as well. On this album, they come together to create energetic and quirky independent rock. Tyler Burkum's guitars are so unique and the drums from Jeremy Lutito provide a huge low end. The songs sometimes get me dancing, for sure. Unfortunately, after the success of this album and a year or two of touring, the band ended up splitting up, though a few members did record a second album that is not as good. Sadly, this album seems to be not currently available on streaming in the US at least, so you will need to try to find a copy elsewhere.

Release Year: 2013

Album Of The Day: No Sir, Nihilism Is Not Practical by Showbread

Album Art of Showbread's No Sir, Nihilism Is Not Practical album - On both sides of the bottom, a pair of old-timey men are looking at a large machine. The machine has some sort of pressure gauge and smoke billowing out of it on the left side, and a large man with antlers coming out of the top of the right. The large man's eyes have dashed red lines pointing at the duo of men in the bottom left. The background seems to be waves of sand dunes or something.

If any music in my collection is the most appropriate for Halloween, it's probably this band, Showbread. Musically, they're a weird mix of hardcore/punk/emo with guitars, screaming, but also some songs with acoustic guitar and vocals, and some with lots of electronic elements too. Lyrically, there's songs about relationships, philosophy and Christianity, and lots of references to horror films, I think (I haven't seen too many horror films myself, but I know enough about film to know there are references here). This was Showbread's first major release and it was released this month 20 years ago, I believe. So if you're looking for something avant-garde and loud that I enjoy, give this a listen.

Release Year: 2004
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Album Of The Day: The Creepier EP...er by Relient K

Album Art of Relient K's The Creepier EP...er EP - A black and white photo two men walking into a woods with hoodies and backpacks on. The band's name is in small letters in the bottom and there's a hairline white border that connects with it. The EP's title is printed in white over the sky with a hand-written, bold font.

Here's a few quick songs from pop-punk band Relient K about Halloween. Thanks to this short EP, I found out about the Butterfinger Cup, a good new candy that they didn't have when I was a kid. And then there's some quick little ditties about Halloween costumes, trick-or-treating, etc. And I think since a friend of Relient K, Owl City, lives in Owatonna, Minnesota, there's also a song about how "Halloween in Owatonna" is scary, just for fun. It's just silly Halloween fun from a fun-loving band.

Release Year: 2016
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Album Of The Day: All Things Work Together by Lecrae

Album Art of Lecrae's All Things Work Together album - A black and white photo of a black man's neck and head, where the top right half is in light, and the bottom left is in shadow. The man is wearing a dark coat with a lighter-colored shirt and has braided hair. His face is looking down and to the left and is all in shadow.

Lecrae has been making independent hip-hop/rap for 20 years. He started out preaching the Gospel, and still does a bit of that, but also spends a lot of his music trying to educate his listeners of his experience as a Black man in America. The track on "Can't Stop Me Now (Destination)" is a sample from a Sufjan Stevens song, which is a different sound than you might expect on a hip-hop album. Lecrae brings along friends and some industry contacts for production and guest verses, including the vocals for "I'll Find You" by Tori Kelly and guest verses by Ty Dolla $ign and Nija on other songs, plus others from the record label he founded, Reach Records. Lecrae is a solid rapper and keeps improving his sound and his verses, and this album is one of his better ones that I listen to regularly.

Release Year: 2017
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Album Of The Day: City Of Black & White by Mat Kearney

Album Art of Mat Kearney's City Of Black And White album - A black and white photo where the sky is white, and the man stands next to a white car, adjusting his black tie. He's wearing a black hat, a white shirt, and black pants. Behind him is some one-story buildings, tractor trailers, and poles along with trees. Above his head, the artist's name is printed in large orange letters. To the left of him, the album title in smaller black letters.

Mat Kearney got his start writing pop songs with the occasional spoken word verse. On this album, he skips the fast-paced, hip-hop style and kicks back into a a quieter, laid-back vibe. Consisting of mostly love songs and lyrics on the struggles of life, it's not an album that jumps out of my library asking to be listened to. I do like some of Mat's other albums more, honestly. But whenever I come back to this album, for example at the end of a slow Monday like today, it is better than I remember it. This album is chill and reliable. "My love will not fade / Through the fire and rain"

Release Year: 2009
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Album Of The Day: Joy by Martin Smith

Album Art of Martin Smith's Joy album - On a black background, a white circular hole with a slight blue tint on the edges is showing a picture of a middle-aged man in white pants and a black coat running and holding a large, white flag that has the word 'Joy' hand-drawn on it in pink marker.

Martin Smith has been leading worship at churches, clubs and stadiums for most of the last 30 years, and has also been in a few pop/rock bands as well. Released on Friday, Joy is Martin Smith's latest album, and it does certainly center on God and the joy that He provides us, even in hard times. Like many other worship releases especially in this digital era, these 10 tracks are expansive, averaging nearly 6 minutes per song. Two of the songs are songs previously recorded by Martin's band delirious? over 25 years ago, and "I've Found Jesus" is especially fun because it is a much more pop/Gospel/funk sound than the original band version. The old songs fit well with the new songs too, telling Martin's story and pointing to Jesus as the source of our joy and the maker of all things. I look forward to listening to this album more in the coming weeks, and as usual, Martin Smith writes beautiful songs that speak to me, even if they're not the ones that churches are singing.

Release Year: 2024
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