Charley Crockett’s Proverbial West

This week I’m spending time with Rainbow Body’s self-titled debut, a collaboration featuring members of Dawes, Goose, Soulive, and more. Moving through psychedelic rock, Americana, soul, and folk, the record pairs wonderful harmonies and adventurous guitar work with some humor, elusive poetry, and songs that keep revealing something new. It’s an earthy, inviting rock record from musicians who clearly take the fun seriously.I also reflect on the spiritual imagery behind the band’s name and how their collaboration offers a picture of something Christians should recognize: people bringing different gifts, listening to one another, and knowing when to step forward and when to help someone else be a light.Happy listening.Featured Artist & AlbumRainbow Body — Rainbow Body — Apple Music | SpotifyMore from Audio DeaconSubscribe to Audio Deacon on Substack for album reviews, shorter recommendations, and reflections on music—including plenty of records that don’t make it onto the podcast.Enjoying the podcast? Please leave a rating and review to help new listeners find us.The Audio Deacon App!Click HERE and use code audiodeacon3 to get your first 3 months for FREE!We’re building a curated music app for Christian households, prioritizing the songs of the church alongside a growing library for everyday listening.Sign up at the link, download the app, log in, and enjoy!

This week I’m spending time with Cameron Winter’s Live at Carnegie Hall, a stripped-down concert of the Geese frontman alone at a piano, singing striking, mysterious, and heartbreaking poetry. His passionate performances move through loneliness, troubled identity, longing, and flashes of humor, with songs that sound haunted by Christ Himself. This album lives inside human yearning, and occasionally pokes its head above the water to declare that God is real.I also consider how beauty can awaken a hunger we don’t yet know how to name - and the Christian hope that brings that longing to its fulfillment in Christ and the feast of His people.A note for parents: the album contains strong language throughout.Happy listening.Featured Artist & AlbumCameron Winter — Live at Carnegie Hall - Apple Music | SpotifyThe Audio Deacon App!Click HERE and use code audiodeacon3 to get your first 3 months for FREE!Sign up at the link, download the app, log in, and enjoy!

This week I’m spending time with Phoebe Bridgers’ Lost Weekend, a haunted and personal folk record shaped by grief, romantic devotion, family relationships, and the longing to make peace with the past. Bridgers surrounds these stories with ghostlike vocals, static, distortion, and moments of startling beauty, creating an album that feels simultaneously immediate and out of reach.I also consider the Christian hope that answers the album’s yearning for love, reconciliation, and glory.Happy listening.Featured Artist & AlbumPhoebe Bridgers — Lost Weekend - Apple Music | SpotifyClick HERE and use code audiodeacon3 to get your first 3 months for FREE!Sign up at the link, download the app, login, and enjoy!

This week I’m spending time with The Arcadian Wild’s Make It Out Alive, a warm, intricate folk record full of friendship, family, childhood, mortality, beauty, and jubilee. The band continues to expand its sound with rich harmonies, thoughtful arrangements, and little instrumental flourishes tucked into nearly every corner, while keeping the songs rooted in the real world and the glory of ordinary life.Happy listening.Featured Artist & AlbumThe Arcadian Wild — Make It Out Alive - Apple Music | SpotifyClick HERE and use code audiodeacon3 to get your first 3 months for FREE!Sign up at the link, download the app, login, and enjoy!

This week I’m bringing you two records that approach time and memory in very different ways. I begin with The Mountain Goats’ Days, a characteristically sharp and personal record from John Darnielle, full of old bands, cultural artifacts, half-remembered moments, and the strange scraps that make up a life. Then I turn to Dan Deacon’s National Geographic: Time and Water, a spacious instrumental soundtrack built from pulsing electronics, strings, piano, and slowly unfolding soundscapes. One record looks backward by telling stories; the other creates a world you can inhabit in the present. Both remind us that music can help us pay better attention to time, memory, and the places we find ourselves. Happy listening.Featured Artists & AlbumsThe Mountain GoatsDays  - Apple Music | SpotifyDan Deacon — National GeographicTime and Water - Apple Music | SpotifyClick HERE and use code audiodeacon3 to get your first 3 months for FREE!Sign up at the link, download the app, login, and enjoy!

This week I’m spending time with Charley Crockett’s Clovis, a cinematic country and western record full of dusty landscapes, outlaw tales, dangerous young men, and hard-earned wisdom. Crockett draws deeply from the great western singers of the past, but the record never feels trapped in nostalgia. It is gritty and loose when it needs to be, graceful and carefully crafted when the songs call for tenderness.Happy listening.Featured Artist & AlbumCharley Crockett — Clovis - Apple Music | SpotifyClick HERE and use code audiodeacon3 to get your first 3 months for FREE!Sign up at the link, download the app, login, and enjoy!

This week I’m bringing you two records that move in very different directions. I begin with Office Dog’s Prime Corner, a punchy and lived-in indie rock record full of jangly guitars, garage-band energy, and lyrical images of light, dust, dirt, fault lines, embers, and ash. Then I turn to Roger Eno’s Without Wind, Without Air — Rarities, a moving companion EP that gathers piano, strings, orchestra, and electronics into a beautiful space for reflection. One record sounds like a band cranking it out in the room; the other sounds like light moving through that room after everyone has gone home. Happy listening.Featured Artists & AlbumsOffice Dog — Prime Corner - Apple Music | SpotifyRoger Eno — Without Wind, Without Air — Rarities - Apple Music | SpotifyClick HERE and use code audiodeacon3 to get your first 3 months for FREE!Sign up at the link, download the app, login, and enjoy!

Nathan Letourneau’s That the Powers of Hell May Vanish brings hymns into a gritty, hard-rock setting without losing the weight and beauty of the words. In this brief recommendation, I reflect on the album’s guitar work, vocal seriousness, and sense of liturgical rootedness. The record gives these hymns a fresh set of colors, making them fitting for meditation, driving, exercise, or attentive listening. Listen now on Audio Deacon or wherever you stream music.ListenAudio DeaconSpotify Apple MusicClick HERE and use code audiodeacon3 to get your first 3 months for FREE!Sign up at the link, download the app, login, and enjoy!

This week I’m bringing you three records that feel like fresh air. I begin with Jack Johnson’s SURFILMUSIC, a warm and charming collection of soundtrack pieces, early four-track recordings, and simple folk songs that sound made for slow summer days. Then I turn to Stephen Sanchez’s Love, Love, Love, a sweet and carefully crafted pop record full of vintage romance, big vocal moments, and genuine cheer. Finally, I spend time with The Lemon Twigs’ Look For Your Mind!, a jangly, melodic, 60s-and-70s-inspired record packed with harmonies, hooks, and little arrangement surprises. In an age of cynicism, these albums remind us that love is still worth singing about. Happy listening.Featured Artists & AlbumsJack Johnson — SURFILMUSIC - Apple Music | SpotifyStephen Sanchez — Love, Love, Love - Apple Music | SpotifyThe Lemon Twigs — Look For Your Mind! - Apple Music | Spotify-------Click HERE and use code audiodeacon3 to get your first 3 months for FREE!Sign up at the link, download the app, login, and enjoy!

This week I’m joined by Andrew Dittman — baritone, choirmaster, composer, and the man behind The Kyrial Project — for a rich conversation about chant, harmony, congregational singing, and the recovery of serious sacred music for ordinary churches and families.We talk about Andrew’s musical upbringing, why children don’t need to be patronized with “children’s music,” why churches should give their people actual music to sing, and how chant can anchor us in the long memory of the church. We also spend time on The Kyrial Project, Andrew’s collection of traditional liturgical settings — especially harmonized Gregorian chant in English — designed to be beautiful, ancient, singable, and usable by Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox churches alike. In our conversation, Andrew explains that a kyrial is a collection of mass settings, and he describes his work as adapting older chant from Latin into English, harmonizing it, recording it, and making it scalable for choirs, congregations, and ordinary parish life. Andrew also talks about Bach, barbershop quartets, The King’s Singers, Chanticleer, Take 6, Voces8, The Beach Boys, The Quebe Sisters, Byrd, Rossini, and why a healthy culture is a singing culture. Enjoy!______Andrew Dittman is a baritone, choirmaster, and composer based in the Dallas area. He holds a Master of Music in Choral Conducting from the University of North Texas, where he also earned bachelor’s degrees in music and computer science. His compositional work draws from Gregorian chant, Renaissance and Baroque counterpoint, American folk music, and shape-note singing. His central work is The Kyrial Project, a collection of sacred music based on familiar melodies from Latin chants of the Ordinary of the Mass — including the Kyrie, Agnus Dei, Pater Noster, and others — adapted into English and given four-part harmonies in the Anglican tradition. Sheet music from The Kyrial Project is arranged for four-part choir or congregation, with SATB vocal arrangements and organ accompaniment available for many of the settings.  Click HERE for sheet music.https://caedmonconference.com/https://www.youtube.com/@aldittmanhttps://kyrialproject.com/hoytcomposer.com