My pure, unadulterated initial reaction to Kendl Winter was:
Holy Moses this is good.
Mike Ostrov at Ninebullets did a pretty great job of praising Ms. Winters’ greatness. A top-notch songwriter and a breathtaking banjo player. It’s a rare bird indeed who can use A) “Centrifugal forces” in a song lyric and B) rhyme it with “magical horses” in C) a song about feeling down and out in Berlin.
But it takes a musician of quite a higher caliber to make “It’s hard to rub your tummy” sound woeful and lonesome, but Winter pulls it off in “It Can Be Done.” Winter glides between twee, indie pop in songs like “Rosie” and her down-home roots like in “Rocking Chair.”
In addition to Winter’s skilled musicianship, Austin Coopers percussion is a force of nature. His work on “Rosie,” “Black Hole,” and “Dreaming of Babylon” is otherworldly.
This album is absolutely one of the best of the year. I can’t do enough to tell you how much I’m in love with it.
Rocking Chair
It Can Be Done
Black Hole