Joey Kneiser and Kelly Smith — Live From Standard Deluxe

I have conflicting advice to give you on this one. If you’ve never listened to a Glossary album before, I’m tempted to see you should drop everything you’re doing and listen to Long Live All of Us. If anyone tries to tell you that alt-country is for sad-sack losers who don’t have anything positive to offer, you can punch them in the gut and then give them that album. It’s a beautiful meditation on life. Even if you’ve heard the album before, I’ll understand if you want to take a break from reading this to enjoy Long Live All of Us all over again.

On the other hand, Live seems to offer an overview of the band’s greatest hits. (I’m ashamed to admit I haven’t gone further back than LLAU.) Joey and Kelly sing all of these songs like every note is an essence of their soul. It’s hard to tell that this is a live album because you can’t even hear a pin drop in the background: the effect is captivating even through my headphones.

This album was dropped as a surprise last week — I wanted to spin it a little bit before sharing it with you. Definitely hie thee to the Bandcamp page to avail yourself of this remarkable performance that’s been captured in amber for the rest of us.

If you like what you hear, This is American Music has plenty more where that came from. You can download a free sampler here.

Joey Kneiser — Official, Bandcamp