J.D. McPherson and Jenny Lewis
Each tap of my Shazam button brings a new listen, a new discovery — and this month, of all the songs I Shazam’d, I stumbled upon two that led me to musicians whose work I will examine much, much deeper.
One of them is from my home state of Oklahoma.
J.D. McPherson is originally from Broken Arrow by way of Talihina, the latter I’ve visited and the former I’ve lived. Dude’s sound is straight from the 1950s, and when I first heard his tune, “North Side Gal,” I thought it was straight from 1958. Kristi and I heard it while waiting for our grocery pickup at Walmart.
What’s crazy is that it’s wholly possible that his interpretation of “North Side Gal” is the same as mine: northwest Oklahoma City. Sure, for McPherson it could mean Tulsa, but I’m letting my imagination project.
Love the sound. Fantastic production. “North Side Gal” is from 2010:
My second discovery came by way of SiriusXMU, a channel usually reserved for uber-Indie tracks. This song was quite formulaic by nature, but I fell in love with the sound quickly. Just a good, solid pop composition from a 43-year-old woman nonetheless, Jenny Lewis. I emphasize the age (I’m 48) only because I was pleasantly surprised SiriusXMU would include her. We folks over 40 get left out of that mix almost always. Because society.
Turns out she was lead singer for a band I had always heard of but never consumed, Rilo Kiley. Fred Armisen is in the video, and if you have his endorsement, I’m in. Love the guitar at the beginning. Sounds very Ryan Adams-like.
Love, love, love this track. This is “She’s Not Me” from 2015:
