It has been quite a while since I've been wowed by a musician of whom I knew absolutely nothing before. Someone sent me a link to a Dan Reeder song, and I started digging around for more, and . . . well, wow.

So I thought I'd mention him here, but first I had the notion to search and see if anyone had previously mentioned him. Turns out Kevin beat me to the punch--by close to a decade! (And there are other mentions of Reeder here and there as well.)

The man makes his own instruments. On them he writes songs that are quirky and weird and yet as perfect and irrefutable as an ancient nursery rhyme. He sometimes says things that are on the minds of men, that men aren't supposed to say in polite company. He records himself, overdubs, does it mainly in what some would consider a "primitive" way. His work, by and large, is catchy as hell.

And I love it.

So check out Dan Reeder if you want something to spend the next few days scrambling for. He's on Myspace, where you can hear whole albums, but I recommend checking him on YouTube, where some enterprising folks have made really cool videos for some of his tunes.

A few of my current favorites:

"Havana Burning" "You'll Never Surf Again" "Elvis Clean" "Shackles and Chains" "Cowboy Song" "Tulips on the Table"

But there are plenty more.

Herring405