1. This Texan turned Carolinian plays a whole bunch of instruments, including all of the sounds you will hear on his “The Woods” EP. He also has a voice like browned butter and a hoppy IPA. It’s smooth, mellow, earthy, but there is something really raw and a little bitter about it.
2. The song “The Climb” is empowering. It takes you back to your dark moments, the time when someone changed their mind about you and it just broke you. It makes you a better person for it. “Because you changed your mind, I don’t mind the climb.”
3. Baer’s voice and style is super versatile. It ranges from smokey, misty acoustic to bright, folky rock and roll. It is amazing in any form.
4. He’s a wanderlusty, traveling gentleman who loves the forest. He shouts out thank yous to West Virginia and Pennsylvania for helping him to break out of Texas in a rollicking ode to coming of age and leaving to find the land you love. I lived in Penna for three years and just want to thank him for his love of the woodlands and ask him what small towns he has fallen in love with.
5. His beautiful EP is $5. That is less than most drinks at starbucks. For you hipsters out there, it is also less expensive than most drinks at your local coffee shop. It will bring you much more lasting joy.
6. “The Pines” is playing right now and it is not only healing the headache that I woke up with, it is also bringing me a slideshow of all of the beautiful memories I have of my summers in the Adirondack Mountains. I’m almost lying on the floor of soft needles gazing up at pink clouds drifting across the sky at dusk.
7. He makes me want more. I not only want more of this EP, I want the next one. I want to see how Kollin Baer is going to change and grow as a musician. I want to know what his music will be like in different contexts, collaborating with different people. Most musicians, I do not really wonder about these things. I may have the fleeting thought about them collaborating with someone particular, but I usually don’t care too much. I am extremely interested in what Baer does next and again after that.
If you like Iron and Wine, Wilco, summer nights, autumn evenings, coffee, the woodlands, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Upstate New York, North Carolina, east coast mountains, pine needles, browned butter on pumpkin gnocci, great music, gentlemen, talented musicians, or being empowered–you should really check out Kollin Baer.
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