Northern Kentucky resident Daniel Martin Moore has accomplished what countless bands and artists before him could not. He became the first artist in the history of venerable indie label Sub Pop to be signed from the submission of an unsolicited demo recording. I first heard of Mr. Moore earlier this Spring when I was making one of my frequent trips to Shake It Records here in town. Darren, one of the co-owners of the store, played me some of Daniel’s music that afternoon and I was instantly struck with how delicate and calm his voice was. Sometimes I hate comparisons to other artists because they tend to build false expectations in a listener, but the ones mentioned in Sub Pop’s own bio of him (Chet Baker, Nick Drake) ring true.

Months after my initial exposure in the record store, I was sent an an advance copy of his debut album Stray Age. One of the first things I noticed was that he does a cover of one of my all-time favorite songs, Sandy Denny’s “Who Knows Where The Time Goes.” That was enough to make me fall in love. But, listening to the full album proved to give plenty more than a well chosen cover of a folk classic. Some songs, such as the title track you can download below, simply feature a beautiful recording of Daniel and his guitar. Elsewhere on the cd, he is joined by a host of talented session players including violinst Petra Haden, who performs on three cuts.

Recorded in Los Angeles with acclaimed producer Joe Chiccarelli (who has previously worked with The White Stripes, The Shins, and U2), every song here is an absolute treasure. It is exciting to have such a stunning debut album surface so unexpectedly from right here in our own backyard. Here in the tri-state, you can catch Daniel performing live on our WOXY.com stage at the MidPoint Festival on Thursday, September 26th. For those of you who aren’t local, you’ll get a chance to hear Daniel perform live when he makes his debut in our WOXY.com Lounge on October 6th.

Stray Age hits stores on cd October 7th on Sub Pop records. A vinyl pressing will arrive later in November from Shake It.

Daniel Martin Moore – Stray Age

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 9th, 2008 at 10:08 am and is filed under MP3's, Music, This Just In. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.