More good tunes you can't buy at Pomegranate (and some you can)

Part of my life involves an endless search for good music. Mostly music we can bring into the shop and sell in CD form. So that means it has to be melodic and not too crazy busy*, or have a pounding rock & roll bass line, or be too whispery/ethereal. We like all kinds of music, but not all of it works in a shop. Turn on an opera and customers will look at you like their heads are going to explode. Same with old Rolling Stones albums. And not everything is available on CD these days. The downloadable options are just too enticing and easy. And for imports, wow, the price can hardly be beat on iTunes. But we still will endeavor to bring in good cds you can hold in your hands and buy.

Thought I'd pass along, from time to time, some recommendations for interesting finds that we don't necessarily carry at Pomegranate (and some we do). I'm in this whole Francophile mode right now, so that's mostly what I've got for you. Good news is, you can tap into iTunes and listen to a bit of each track to see if you like it or not.

I already posted in the past about Gretchen Parlato (Brazilian, get her very good self-titled album), Vinx (don't know why he's not a big star), and JP Nataf (Plus de Sucre), acoustic, lovely, haunting songs.

Today I have for you Pauline Croze (self-titled album with red background). She's sort of an acoustic, folksy, French version of Gwen Stefani. Love it. Also Bertrand Belin (La Perdue). Hate to keep making comparisons to American artists, but to me, he's a French Leonard Cohen. [Ah, Cohen is Canadian, right?] Maybe check out Annie Blanchard (Sur l'autre Rive), a French Canadienne with a great voice who has a definite country vibe, but sung in French, it all takes on a new tone. I'm not a big country music fan, but this I like. I think she won the Canadian equivalent of American Idol.

And now for some music that we do have in stock for you! Corrine Bailey Rae's new album, The Sea, is not as upbeat and pop as her first album (sadly, she became a widow while recording this one), but I'm loving the soft, thoughtful texture and beautiful songs. A Good Day, by Priscilla Ahn. Sweet and lovely acoustic album. Maria Rita (Samba Meu) for dancing around the house. And two albums by Erin Bode: The Little Garden and Over & Over. She has a great acoustic, folk style mixed with jazz.

*Saying that reminded me of a great radio moment from years ago. I was listening to a classical station, and they had put on some sort of frenetic sturm und drang music. Suddenly it stopped mid-stream, the announcer/DJ (who was this character about town) came on and said, "Well, that is just too diddly-diddly for me. Let's hear something else."