Caught in the Carousel

Letter from the Editor - August 2008

By Alex Green

There are a lot of perks that come with this job: concert tickets, album release parties, an office window where I have an unobstructed view of the parking citation being slipped under my windshield wiper blade—oh, the list goes on. But the thing I love the best is when I get the chance to listen to an album long before it comes out.

That being said, all month I've been listening to new ones by San Francisco's The Music Lovers and our good friends from Wales called Armstrong. Of the former, on the band's third long player Masculin/Feminin, singer Matthew Edwards has crafted a modern pop classic. On numbers like "The Weekender," "Bobbie Gentry" and "Blackout," Edwards asserts himself as one of the classiest songwriters currently walking the earth. Elegant, erudite, literate and gorgeous, this might be the album of the year.

As for Armstrong—singer Julian Pitt is the new Prince of Pastoral Pop—the band sent me demos of the songs that may or may not make it to the next album. Although the recordings are rough sketches, they have an organic sheen and polish that can only make me think that it's just a matter of time before Armstrong are massive.

Another cool perk about my job?
Announcing the new issue.
And so here we go…

This month we've got:

**A Scouting Report on Dime Box, the country folk band fronted by former Wednesday Week singer Kristi Callan.

**A brief conversation with singer/songwriter Joy Askew, who also answers a few questions about her new album, her commitment to animal rights and a vegan diet.

**We've got reviews! Among others, we've got:
**Yvonne Prinz on The Reverend Payton's Big Damn Band
**Designer/Staff Writer Lyn Dunagan on Ian Walsh and the Broken Poets
**Thomas Cooney on Mick Hucknall
**Jessica Simons on Jimmy Reeves

**MP3 Downloads: New ones this month by Apollo Sunshine, The Jet Age, Peter von Poehl, Quitzow, Tilly And The Wall and more!

**And thanks to your requests, we're going to keep running our pieces on Solomon Burke and Glen Phillips. You'll find them on the front page where you asked them to remain.

You'll also find a little mint on your pillow.

Enjoy this issue, dear readers. We're very proud. Write, call, email, text, deliver cookies in baskets on our front step.

We'll give them a good home…

Love and Rockets,
Alex Green
Editor, Caught In The Carousel
Alex670@earthlink.net