Garage Sale!

A former member of The Skunks and True Believers (and a three-time inductee into the Austin Music Awards Hall of Fame), Jon Dee Graham still has to rely on the kindness of his peers to get an album together. The excellent At Least We Have Each Other was recorded with Freedy Johnston and Susan Cowsill under the name The Hobart Brothers and Lil' Sis Hobart; hopefully that expanded his audience. And surely, fans of heartfelt and direct songwriting will be charmed by Garage Sale!, a collection of tunes recorded with free studio time from his hosts, John Harvey and Mary Podio. Graham showed up with just ideas and sketches for the songs, and their spontaneous development in the studio adds a sense of freshness to the tracks. There's a raw, basic quality to these tunes. Even the Erin Ivey duet on "O Dearest One (Revisited)" sounds like two musicians reeling off an old favorite on a back porch, with the music industry a million miles away. There's a small-band ferocity to "Where Were Yr Friends?," a Tom Waits piano-ballad vibe to "Bobby Dunbar," and an unvarnished truth to "Codeine/Codine."