Jon Dee Graham - It's Not As Bad As It Looks

While JS-NYC has a lot of love for music, there are few artists that we'd like to actually be: Graham Maby is a given, but beyond that Jon Dee Graham is one of the few on that short list. Hadn't made the Graham connection until I typed that, but JS-NYC is very fond of both those crackers.

I haven't seen Jon Dee since he got dropped by New West at SXSW and was well pleased to hear that he had a new band called The Fighting Cocks, as well as a new record called It's Not As Bad As It Looks. It's been out for a bit, but don't think that JS-NYC lagging on getting to it means that it is anything less than great. Both Jon Dee and Alejandro Escovedo have been putting out some of their best material recently and its great to see. And hear, for that matter. There's an air of melancholy about It's Not As Bad As It Looks that suggest that things haven't been especially rosy for JDG of late, but it has fostered a pretty great bunch of tracks. Get it (and the lion's share of the recent Jon Dee back catalog) here from Freedom Records. While you're there, check for the pay-what-you wish live Chupacabra record with Jon Dee and the band at the Saxon Pub in Austin. Don't forget about the Hobart Bros, either.

R